Hamburg Bank portugaloser

cacheman

I was finally able to attribute this City View medal:

1665 Hamburg Bank portugaloser, 34.8g, 51mm, AV. Gaed. 1573 var.

Obverse: View of city and harbor with JEHOVAH Hebrew Tetragrammaton over in clouds and circle of rays. Around, SUB UMBRA ALARUM TUARIUM (in the shadow of your wings).

Reverse: Shields of four banking cities: top and counterclockwise, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Nurnberg, Rostock. Around, BANCORIAM IN EUROPA, BONO CUM DEO ERECTORUM MEMORIA. M. DC. LXV.

Used as standardized "monies of account" (askari) between partnering banking cities. The last one seen at auction was in Germany seven years ago....

Just for fun, how many people, cattle, dogs, ships/boats do you see in the city view/harbor view? It is quite amazing!!

elverno

Awesome!!!!

1jester

For the life of me I can't get those red Xs to change. However, I remember when you got 2 different versions of those nice multiple Thalers.

theboz11

Very Impressive

MadMuffin

Stunning medal!

In Denmark a portugaloser is a large (and rarely minted) gold coin. It was only minted in the 1600s for trade with south European countries.

Marcel

MadMuffin

In fact, here is a link to an extremely rare Danish double portugaloser: link

BTW, it appears that one gold portugaloser was equal to 10 ducats. That would give it a weight of around 35 gram which means that the one that I have linked to would weigh around 70 gram!

Marcel

cacheman

The attribution came from Fritz Rudolf Kuenker Muenzenhandlung e. K.. I only have one book that shows the Portugaloser as gold too but the term evidently applied to silver also. I might add that this piece really wouldn't be either a double taler or a medal but would be in line with todays silver rounds. At least that is my opinion. Perhaps askari has more info...

newbiecollector

I personally think it is he most detailed of your coins/medals.. Of course if there is a dispute you can send it to me and I will hide it.

First class in my opnion and amazing detail.

spoon

Very interesting! I'd like to hear more about these portugalosers. This is the first I've heard of them..

1jester

That's awesome, Cacheman! I like it. It was equivalent to our $1000 bills, or $10,000 bills? Very beautiful.

Askari

I think you now have more knowledge about this coin than I do. It is quite lovely ... maybe I should have gotten it myself!! I'm delighted you were finally able to get it attributed!

MadMuffin

Another coin that is usually considered to be a gold coin is the ducat. However, in the Netherlands silver ducats were minted a few centuries ago. So I suppose silver portugalosers is quite possible too.

Marcel

trozau

A massive medal/coin like that would be awesome in gold!