Silver medal depicting  well designed historic scene with breath-taking vitality. Extremely fine plain smooth edge, no mint marks.  A very nice, silver medal in exceptional condition. Several protestant Free Imperial Cities including Nuremberg issued commemorative medals celebrating the Augsburg Confession in 1730. 

·      Year: 1839

·      Weight: 14.055g

·      Size: 37mm

·     Obverse Description: Bust of Joachim II in the crown, elector mantle, with right hand on sword and left holding sceptre.

·     Obverse Titulature: IOACHIM II ERSTER EVANGELISCHERCHURFURST ZU BRANDENBURG

 ·    Translation Titulature: JOACHIM II FIRST EVANGELICAL CHURCH BROUGHT TO BRANDENBURG

·     Reverse Description:  In a church scene of the Lord's Supper, in the middle the bishop of Brandenburg, in front of it the kneeling Elector and his mother Elisabeth around them clerics,councillors and women.

·     Reverse Titulature:  UNSER GLAUBE IST DER SIEG DER DIE WELT UBERWUNDEN HAT IOH 1 V 4.

·     Translation Titulature:  (Our faith is the victory that has overcome the world Joh.1.V.4)

·     Signed Bottom: Left at the edge Signature GL DIR, (G.L. Vide GOTTFRIED BERNHARD LOOS. 1773-1843. Founder of the Loos Die-sinking establishment at Berlin. ) right CP FEC.( C. Pfeuffer)

·     Mint: Berlin

·     Reference:  K. Sommer, The Medals of the Royal Prussian Court Medalists  and Friedrich Wilhelm Kullrich (1986) 45 No. P 63..

·     Ruler: Frederick William III

 All coins and Medals are sold with a full refund if not 100% satisfied as per return policy.

Medals in General

Unlike coins medals did not have a set value or even a monetary function and their production was not reserved for government. Even so, not everyone was able to afford to have their own medals made. Making a medal cost money, especially if it is made from precious metal. The monarch  was obliged by custom to make medals for various occasions such as coronations or weddings. For his subjects ordering a medal was a matter of choice, an opportunity to show not merely taste but also a certain intellectual level/ status and knowledge of antique traditions.

A lot of medals depict the bust of the person authorizing the medals minting along with the reverse depicting some reference or scene of events from the ancient world mostly heroic or famous event with or without a Latin inscription.

For centuries prior to daily newspapers television medals were the most efficient method to publish and spread personal and political propaganda. Even though the printing press was invented in the 15th century very few could read even if they could afford to purchase written material and as often phrased- a picture tells a thousand words and leaves lot stronger impression than a written account especially with various symbolism depicted – interpretation can be directed in a predetermined direction and then the mind to freely wander and embellish the intangible realms that have been set in motion by the medalist.

Background

1839 Germany (Berlin) medal struck on behalf of Frederick William II the then current ruler of Berlin- commemorating the 300th anniversary introduction of the Reformation in Brandenburg-Prussia by Joachim II- Elector of Brandenburg with his display of his sympathy towards the emerging Protestant Reformation by his visit to St. Nicholas' Church in Spandau This medal’s  imagery was to highlight and reflect William’s support and desire to reconfirm the AUGSBURG CONFESSION as the official creed of his realm.

The start of the Reformation

“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory [also attested as 'into heaven'] springs”

Luther objected to this saying attributed to Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany by the Roman Catholic Church who in 1516 to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Roman Catholic theology stated that faith alone, whether fiduciary or dogmatic, cannot justify man; justification rather depends only on such faith as is active in charity and good works (fides caritate formata). The benefits of good works could be obtained by donating money to the church.

This lead to Luther penning what became known as The Ninety-Five Theses which he handed to his bishop on 31 October 1517 and several years of debate and confrontation with the Papacy and Luther’s ultimate excommunicated by Pope Leo X on 3 January 1521.

The Edict of Worms was a decree issued on 25 May 1521 by Emperor Charles V, declaring Luther to be an obstinate heretic and banned the reading or possession of his writings.

However with Charles being so preoccupied with political and military concerns elsewhere and rising public support for Luther among the German people and protection of certain German princes in particular Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, the Edict of Worms was never enforced in Germany.

Thus this allowed Luther to return to public life and became instrumental in disrupting the religious strength of the papacy and laying the groundwork for the Protestant Reformation.

Augsburg Confession

Shaken by the Siege of Vienna in 1529 which came swiftly on the heels of the French inspired Ottoman’s invasion of Hungary, the Habsburg Emperor Charles V convened the Imperial Diet at Augsburg in 1530, to try and stem the religious disharmony that had arisen as a result of Luther and which was dividing and weakening his  kingdom in order to be able to unite the empire against the Turks.

Charles V asked for a statement of the evangelical case portraying that he was opened to consider “with love and kindness the views of everybody".  

Ultimately a case was duly devised by Luther, Melanchthon, and their colleagues at Wittenberg. Melanchthon drafted the document, known as the Augsburg Confession, and travelled with the elector's party to Augsburg, where it was read to the emperor and diet on 25 June 1530.

Despite the Confession's avoidance of strident language or abuse of the pope, the diet or general assembly of the Imperial Estates of the Holy Roman Empire, rejected it on 22 September and ordered the reformers to renounce heresy and submit to the control of the Roman Catholic Church by the following April or face the imperial army.

That decision confirmed Luther's belief that the mission had been futile. It prompted the Lutheran princes to form a military alliance, the Schmalkaldic League, which Luther cautiously supported on grounds of self-defence in his Warning to His Dear German People of 1531.

Thus although being rejected by the Holy Roman Empire the Augsburg Confession had been given sufficient public exposure to Luther and his fellow associate’s dissatisfaction with certain practices within the papacy and although a modification of Luther's own position, it went on to become regarded as the first Lutheran treatise or statement of faith on which Lutherans were prepared to stand or fall.

The sale of indulgences shown in A Question to a Mintmaker, woodcut by Jorg Breu the Elder of Augsburg, ca. 1530

Luther Before the Diet of Worms" by Anton von Werner (1843–1915)

Medalist

Christoph Carl Pfeuffer (born October 29, 1801 in Suhl , Thuringia , † December 24, 1861 in Berlin ) was a German engraver and medallist . 

Life

Christoph Carl Pfeuffer was the son of joiner Johann Heinrich Pfeuffer and his wife Barbara Cadarina, nee Kreißen. He worked as a volunteer with the electoral Saxon court Engraver Johann Veit Döll and developed there to a first-class die cutter .

In 1820 Pfeuffer moved to Berlin and began his work at the Berlin Medal Coin by Gottfried Bernhard Loos . In 1831 he married the 21-year-old Sabine Tugendreich Marggraff and lost her one year later by childbed fever after the birth of her daughter. Pfeuffer was often ill and stayed loyal to Berlin until his death from lung injury on December 24, 1861. He left behind two orphaned grandchildren. Pfeuffer was a member of the Berlin Masonic Lodge Zum goldenen Pflug . He was buried in the Sophien cemetery in Berlin. 

·         1820: Engraver at the Berlin medal coin Loos

·         1828: Chef d'atelier at the Berlin medal coin Loos. From 1822 to 1828 about 80,000 medals were produced and sold here. 

·         1840: Medal at the Royal Mint Berlin .

·         1842: Royal Court and Coin Medalist.

·         1845: 1st Coin Medalist at the Royal Mint Berlin.

During his 20-year employment with the Royal Mint, Pfeuffer has also cut the minting stamps for many other German states: For Hamburg , Hesse-Kassel , Hohenzollern , Lippe-Detmold , Mecklenburg-Schwerin , Reuss-Obergreiz , Sachsen-Meiningen , Sachsen-Weimar , Schwarzburg-Sondershausen , Waldeck and Pyrmont .

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Returns Policy - 100% Satisfaction               

We endeavour to provide accurate descriptions and details of the items for sale and any opinion of quality is just that - our opinion and we give no warranties either expressed or implied as to our opinion especially respecting grades. This is because grading can vary depending on many factors such as tone color strike blemishes and overall combination of all the before mentioned even between professional graders so please make your own examination from the photos so as to make your own assessment.      

If for whatever reason you are not completely happy with your purchase, please email me with your concerns within 7 days and if they cannot be resolved, and it is in the same condition as it was sent, I will give you a refund of the sale cost of the item.