1656, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Augustus the Younger. Silver 2 Mariengroschen Coin.

Mint Year: 1656

Reference: KM-431.

Denomination: 2 Mariengroschen

Condition: Lightly deformed, otherwise abou XF!

Diameter: 18mm

Weight: 1.06gm 

Material: Silver

The Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was a principality within the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg, whose history was characterised by numerous divisions and reunifications. Various dynastic lines of the House of Welf ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel until the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806. As a result of the Vienna Congress, its successor state, the Duchy of Brunswick, was created in 1814. 

Augustus of Brunswick-Lüneburg (10 April 1579 – 17 September 1666), called the Younger, was duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. In the estate division of the House of Welf of 1635, he received the Principality of Wolfenbüttel.

Augustus was born in Dannenberg, the seventh child of Henry, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg. After complicated negotiations with his family members and an intervention by Emperor Ferdinand II, it was agreed that he should inherit Wolfenbüttel, whose last ruler had died in 1634. Because of the Thirty Years' War, he could not move into his residence until 1644. Augustus instituted a number of government reforms, and founded the Bibliotheca Augusta, a large library, in Wolfenbüttel. Under the pseudonym Gustavus Selenus, he wrote a book on chess in 1616, Chess or the King’s game, and on cryptography in 1624: Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae libri IX.   The pseudonym is a cryptic reference to his name, Gustavus anagrams   (with U=V) to Augustus, the surname is a play on the Greek goddess of   the moon (Selene). The book on cryptography is largely based on earlier   work by Trithemius.

Augustus died at Wolfenbüttel and was succeeded by his three sons, Rudolph Augustus, Anthony Ulrich, and Ferdinand Albert. His daughter Clara Augusta of Brunswick-Lüneburg married Frederick of Württemberg-Neuenstadt (19 December 1615 – 24 March 1682) on 7 June 1653.