A variety with a three-leafed branch and with an oval crest shield supported by lions with double tails.
The first vintage of Jan Casimir's Danzig thalers, minted at a time when fine coinage was banned in the Republic.
Nice, deeply minted.
Natural age patina. Background with a pleasant mint luster.
Obverse: bust of the king wearing a shaded crown and armor with a lined high shirt collar decorated with lace, on the chest the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece
IOAN CASIM:D:G:REX POL:ET SUEC:M:D:L.RUS:PR:
Rw.: two lions support an oval city shield, above the shield a laurel wreath visible only on the front with two palm branches and a three-leaved sprig inside, initials G-R under the lions' paws, date 1649 in an oblong leafy cartouche with a small spike
MON ARGENTEA CIVITATIS GEDANENSIS
Variety with double lions' tails. Trifoliate flower in a wreath between two palms. Date in cartouche at top and bottom ending in a spike.
Diameter 44 mm, weight 28.32 g
Jaroslaw Dutkowski, in his catalog "Thalers of Jan Kazimierz", writes the following about the Gdansk mint: "The Gdansk mint began minting thalers only during the reign of Wladyslaw IV Vasa in 1636. They were then regularly minted until the end of his reign. After the election of the new King John Casimir, the mint in Gdansk administered by Gerhardt Rogge immediately began minting thalers and half thalers with the bust of the new king. The minting rate established for thalers in 1633 was followed. Double thalers were also minted the following year. The activity of the mint in 1649 was extremely intensive, as indicated by the huge number of stamps used in their minting."
John Casimir's thalers were minted under the 1650 ordinance from 14th-gold silver (8 thalers from a Cracow fine of 201.866 grams of pure silver). They weighed 28.838 g and contained 25.232 g of pure bullion. Compared to the thalers issued since the 1627 Ordinance, the standard of John Casimir's thalers was slightly raised and adjusted to the imperial rate. Crown thalers and half thalers were minted primarily by the Crown mint in Cracow, in addition, from other Crown mints: Bydgoszcz, Poznan, Wschowa and Lwow (unique from the MNW). Among the crown thalers of Jan Kazimierz, an interesting group is minted in silver with portugal stamps. The Lithuanian mint in Vilnius also minted a small number of thalers in 1650 (one unique piece is known). Among the productions of the city mints, the most abundant were the Danzig issues (half-talars, thalers, two-talars). Among the extremely interesting ones are the thaler issues of Elblag, where clipped coins dominated: semi-talars (also minted with stamps prepared for the production of orts), thalers, one-and-a-half thaler coins and two-talars. Thalers and two-talars had a standard (round) form. Torun thalers were minted in several vintages.
