Owner Comments:
1617 Erfurt taler; featuring wild man and wild woman holding the Erfurt coat of arms with dame above, which shares the “wheel” design elements with the Mainz coat of arms. Struck by mint master AW (Asmus Wagner).
Included in the set for several reasons:
1 – Erfurt (“Erphesfurt”) was originally one of 3 dioceses established by Saint Boniface in 742 (along with Wurzburg and Bamberg). After 755, considered to be a branch bishopric of Mainz until it gained independence in 1200s. One of largest cities in Germany in early 1500s before slow decline in 1600s; lost independence and brought back under electorate of Mainz in 1664.
2 – Reverse edge inscription: DATE CAESARIS CAESARI ET QUAE DEI DEO (Matthew 22:21 – Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's).
3 – Martin Luther studied in Erfurt in 1501 and was ordained as a priest in the Erfurt Cathedral. Although he moved to Wittenberg in 1511, Erfurt was an early adopter of the Protestant Reformation as early as 1521.
Note: several varieties of 1617 exist. KM16.3 is the famed variety with the alchemist signs on either side of the reverse coat of arms (sulphur of the alchemists & mercury). Numismatic writers have debated the meaning of these symbols for centuries, which some believing they are merely marks of mint master Weismantel.