1/2 Thaler Principality of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel (1269 - 1815) S ...

1643, Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, Augustus. Silver 5th Bell ½ Thaler Coin

Mint year: 1634

Mint Place: Zellerfeld

Denomination: 5th Bell ½ Thaler

Reference: Welter 829, KM-416.

Weight: ca. 13.3gm

Diameter: 34mm

Material: Silver



Obverse: Armored and draped half-length figure of Augustus “the Younger” left, holding commanter`s batton and helmet.

Legend: AUGUSTUS HERTZOG ZU BRAUNS UND LU

Reverse: Bell, flanked by inscriptions (TAN-DEM / WAIDIR / M. VIII B. 13. . )OK).

Legend: * ALLES * MIT * BEDACHT . ANNO 1643

During the Thirty Years War (1618-1648), one Protestant prince, Christian of Brunswick, was an aggressive advocate and military leader. Early in the conflict, he issued interesting thalers at Paderborn, struck supposedly from the abbey’s melted plate, with the legend GOTTES FREUNDT DER PFAFFEN FEINDT -- “God's friend, the priest's foe.” Twenty years later, the Bell Thalers (glockenthaler) of his kinsman, August the Younger, seem to echo a different, more rueful and war-weary sentiment — and were a series of seven differing issues struck to celebrate the departure of the Hapsburg imperial armies from his domains in 1643. On this ½ thaler, the fifth, appears the legend ALLES MIT BEDACHT -- "Everything with thought.".

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.