The thaler on the occasion of the funeral of Prince Ulrich

Ulrich was the youngest son of the Pomeranian Duke Bogislav XIII (1544-1606) and the last hope for maintaining the Griffin dynasty. In 1618, he received the bishopric of Kamień Pomorski, promised to him as a legacy from Francis I. He also took over the illegal mint in Koszalin, where he minted low-value two-shillings on a vast scale. In the Duchy of Pomerania, according to Reich law, only the mint in Stettin could operate. The only positive note in all of Ulrich's illegal minting was the short issue of a total value of 1/16 thaler in 1622, alongside new shillings, half- shillings, and quarter- shillings and wittens were supposed to stabilise the exchange rate of money. The unexpected death of the thirty-three-year-old Duke in 1622 interrupted the activities of the Koszalin mint. A series of coins commemorating the deceased Ulrich was minted there, and then the mint was closed for a few years. An exciting composition, namely, the Duke's bust in profile and a branch broken off by the storm, appeared on the lower denominations (parts of thalers) of commemorative coins. A universal iconographic scheme was placed on thalers and its multiples minted with the same stamp, which was a kind of hourglass with the Duke's bust in the left profile. Although very rarely used on coins, such a depiction already appeared in Pomeranian numismatic items on the coins of his uncles, Ernest Ludwig and John Frederick. A multiline inscription on the reverse informs about the reason for coinage, dates of birth, death and the coin's maker. It is worth emphasising that the thalers bore the only portrait of Ulrich that appeared on the coins.

Genowefa Horoszko