A specimen piece.
Exquisitely minted with strong background luster and untouched circulation detail.
The natural colored patina makes the coin look phenomenal.
The only piece with the highest grade in the NGC registry.
During the reign of Sigismund the Old, in 1526-1528, perhaps the most important monetary reform in the history of Polish money was carried out. A modern, well-functioning system based on full value coinage - silver and gold - was introduced. The monetary system of Sigismund the Old was represented by denars, ternars, shekels, half-pennies, groszy, troyaks, sixpences, thalers (still medals) and ducats. The king led to the monetary union of the Crown and Royal Prussia. However, the monetary system of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania functioned separately (4 Lithuanian pennies equaled 5 Polish pennies). Sigismund the Old left his mark not only on Polish minting (as King of Poland) and on Lithuanian minting (as Grand Duke of Lithuania). He also left his mark in the minting of Silesia as Duke of Glogow, minting (possibly) halers and (certainly) Glogow groshes in 1505 and 1506.
In the time of Sigismund the Old, the denarius was the lowest denomination. Its value was 1/18 of a penny (1/3 of a ternar, 1/6 of a shekel). Denars were minted from 1 ½ -lut silver. They weighed an average of 0.366 grams and contained 0.034 grams of pure bullion. Crown denarii were issued by the Cracow mint in 1528-1529, with the crowned royal monogram "S" on the obverse and the White Eagle on the reverse. Prussian denarii, minted in Torun in 1528-1530, 1532-1533 and 1535, also belong to the coins without inscription (obverse - crowned monogram, reverse - Prussian eagle). Slightly more varied are the Danzig denarii (obverse - coat of arms of Danzig, reverse - Prussian eagle). They were minted from the mid 1530s, but initially undated, on the sides of the coat of arms of Gdansk had the letters M - S. These were the initials of the engraver Maciej Schilling. The date was not placed until 1539. Another series of Danzig denars minted in 1546-1548 had only the end of the date on the sides of the coat of arms. The Elbląg denars repeated the iconographic scheme of the Danzig denars (the city's coat of arms/Prussian eagle). They were minted with the date 1539 (date 1545 known from the literature) and without a date.
