Thaler

Duke Philip Julius of Wolgast minted coins from 1609 in the mint established by his father Ernest Ludwig at the Castle in Franzburg. According to the monetary law of the Reich, such activity was illegal, and the Duke's efforts to legalise the mint were unsuccessful. In the mint of Franzburg, apart from small low-value coins, which contributed to inflation (the Kipper und Wipper period), also high denominations of silver were made - thalers, their parts and multiplications. The decline in the value of money meant that the demand for coarse coins increased significantly, and it became increasingly difficult to maintain their standard. Issues of thalers were made in two periods: 1609-1611 and 1620-1623. Three mint masters were involved in their production: Casper Rottermund in 1609-1615, Michal Martens in 1615-1622 and Hans Puls in 1622-1625. The main side of the thalers is decorated with the Duke's bust in armour with a creche, characteristic of the period, and on the reverse side, there is a large coat of arms of the Griffin dynasty. The shield received a complete heraldic setting in the form of a helmet, mantles, a jewel and keepers (wild men with maces), and the nine fields were repeated after 1583, when John Frederick minted the first thalers. According to the heraldic canon, the first row contains shields with the Pomeranian, Szczecin and Kashubian griffin, the middle row contains shields with the Veneti griffin, the Rugian lion on the wall and the Usedom fish griffin, and the third row contains shields with the Bardzki griffin, the Cross of Choćków with four roses, and the Wolgast half-griffin on a chessboard. In the rim of the obverse, in shortened royal titles, there is the Duke's name as lord of the whole West Pomerania. According to the partition agreement of 1532, the rulers pursued a common foreign and monetary policy and used the same titles, regardless of the land they ruled. On the reverse, a biblical sentence was placed around the Pomerania coat of arms, which also appeared on other types of coins.

Genowefa Horoszko