Первые талеры и европейское медальерное искусство

The iconography of images struck on the first European thalers, which were to become the main currency of the Modern Age, was considerably influenced by European medals. By 1484, when the first thalers were minted, there had already been a long tradition of cast and engraved medals production in Europe, whose iconographic details were sometimes repeated on gold and large silver coins. Later, in the 16th century, the regular minting of a new thaler coin was often preceded by the creation of a prototype medal. In the late 15th and early 16th centuries the line between the first thalers and medals was not easy to draw. The emitters used the already existing models, so that new coins of larger denominations could circulate as a kind of “mass medals” and serve, apart from their utilitarian function, to commemorate the Prince and the State that minted them.