obv. Bust of Duke Heinrich to the left, wearing a fur coat and the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, surrounded by the legend HEN•IVN•D• - G•D•B•E•L•58
rev. Fortuna with sail overhead, within chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece, surrounded by the legend IG•G - H - I - GE •, which is divided by 4 small shields of arms of Braunschweig (2 Löwen), Lüneburg, Eberstein und Homburg. In full, the abbreviated text reads: In Gott′s Gewalt Hab Ich′s GEstalt
Henry II the Younger (Heinrich II der Jüngere), Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, 1514-1568The Catholic Duke Henry the Younger, a staunch opponent of the Reformation, was considered energetic and unscrupulous. He played a decisive role in the suppression of the peasants at the Battle of Frankenhausen in 1525. Until 1528, he served the Emperor in Spain and as a general in Italy.Henry had been married to a Württemberg countess since 1515, who bore him eleven children. At the same time, he had a love affair with the lady-in-waiting Eva von Trott. To conceal the affair, he had his lover given a fake burial. However, since she bore him a total of ten children, it eventually became a scandal. Numerous Protestant pamphlets attacked and mocked the duke. Martin Luther called him ″Wild Hans Worst.″ In 1542, members of the Schmalkaldic League expelled Henry from his lands and introduced the Reformation there. Henry′s attempt to regain his lands ended in defeat in 1545, during which he became a prisoner of Landgrave Philip of Hesse. He was released after the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547. Together with Maurice of Saxony, he defeated the ″princely arsonist″ Albrecht Alcibiades at Sievershausen in 1553, where his two older sons were killed. As he grew older, Henry became more tolerant. Eventually, the 79-year-old raised no objections to the succession of his Protestant son Julius.This prestigious gold coin is known only with the date 1558. Both sides of the coin depict the Order of the Fleece with the order′s chain. The depiction of Fortuna with a curved sail on the reverse of the coin is unusual. This coin was probably minted on some occasion and not immediately intended for normal circulation. Considering its rarity, production would have been very small. A highly interesting and very desirable rarity.
Welter 384 | MB.108 (wrongly described as ″ducat″) Friedberg 625RR struck with some weaknesses vf-
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