Festive shooting matches used to be very common. During the Baroque period in particular, they featured among the entertainments at court in Dresden. Often, they were held to celebrate particularly solemn occasions. The Elector of Saxony would have lozenge-shaped coins like these minted. Known as "Schießklippen", marksman's coins, they were awarded as prizes to the winners of the shooting matches. A secondary purpose was the aggrandisement of the Elector and his family.
Most of those taking part in the shooting matches were aristocratic members of court society. The gentlemen fired crossbows, steel bows or guns, while the ladies watched. They were considered unfit to bear arms. However, princesses could be represented by male marksmen. So ladies did occasionally win a shooting match.
As in this case. On the 23rd of July 1676, Electress Magdalena Sibylle won the title of shooting champion. Her son, Electoral Prince Johann Georg, had scored the winning crossbow shot. The type of competition held in Dresden was known as "Vogelschießen". It involved hitting a wooden bird mounted on a pole. The marksman's coin you see here weighs precisely 176.88 grammes, making it six times as heavy as a thaler. On the obverse, you can see the electoral hat at the top, and beneath it the Electress's complicated mirror image monogram.
MSC - Magdalena Sibylle, Electress.
The reverse shows the festival grounds. In the centre of the picture is the pole, with a bird and a detached wing falling to the ground. The figures on either side are personifications of good fortune and hope.
The marksman's coin was designed by Ernst Caspar Dürr and Martin Heinrich Omeis, two medallists employed by the electoral court in Dresden.
Further Media
- Material & Technique
- silver, embossed
- Museum
- Münzkabinett
- Location & Dating
- Saxony 1676
- Inventory number
- AGB8975