2022-09-14 Wed

One of the most famous Germanic coins is the “Wildman taler.” Wildman taler was influenced by pagan tradition in the Harz Mountain region of Germany, where the wildman appears in folklore and other forms of art but not many coins feature this pagan mythological creature.

The Harz was a major silver-producing region and the imagery is a reference to the mining city Wildemann and the legend of its foundation. As the story goes, in 1529, miners who were sent out to find new ore deposits discovered a wild man who lived with a wild woman. They captured him, but he died as a result of his injuries. Large silver ore deposits were reportedly discovered where he had lived.

The Wildman, according to Germanic Coinages was the medieval European equivalent of the American Bigfoot or Sasquatch. Typical Wildman coins show a gigantic beast, usually hairy and muscled, wearing a loincloth of leaves, with only its hands and feet free of fur. The creature is often seen grasping the trunk of a tree, sometimes with a city or forest in the background.

Image Courtesy: coinworld.com