Erfurt coin tankard in the Anger Museum

The Anger Museum is located in the former Electorate of Mainz packing and weighing yard, a baroque city palace from the early 18th century with a richly decorated facade. Since 1886, a donation has developed into a collection structure with a wide range of cultural and historical aspects, which was later divided up to promote the development of the city’s differently oriented history museums.

In the Anger Museum, numismatic objects can only be seen as part of special exhibitions. But there is one exception: In the museum’s permanent arts and crafts exhibition, the coin tankard by the Erfurt goldsmith Friedrich Engau from the 1650s is presented as a unique example of Thuringia’s arts and crafts tradition. In 2015, Dr. Miriam Krautwurs, the museum’s curator, discovered it in an auction catalog and was able to acquire it for the museum’s collection with the support of two sponsors. She describes the tankard as follows:

“The tankard, which is almost 20 cm high, is in no way inferior to comparable pieces from the goldsmith centers of Augsburg and Nuremberg. A total of 32 coins of different sizes and values ​​are soldered in. All surfaces in between are decorated with remarkably high-quality and rich repoussé work and engraving. The coins used come from different territories – primarily the Wettins (Ernestine and Albertine lines) and Welfs as well as Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt and Saxe-Weimar. They were minted between 1538 and 1655. The last year provides the terminus post quem; the coin tankard can thus be dated to exactly seven years between 1655 and 1662. The initials F E refer to Friedrich Engau (master 1647, mentioned until 1662), a member of a family of Erfurt goldsmiths. The coin tankard was the first time that a work by Friedrich Engau could be identified.

Profane goldsmith work from Erfurt has become extremely rare as a result of the very high tribute payments demanded by Napoleon and the associated melting down; even the Erfurt council silver was almost completely lost during the Thirty Years’ War. Friedrich Engau’s coin tankard is therefore also a rare example of the once high level of Erfurt gold and silversmithing.”

Text: Sturm, Erfurter Münzfreunde e.V.