German Sechsling

Like the Riga Shilling coin found at Jamestown, this German Sechsling, also found at the Fort site, was manufactured in an “Imperial Free City” of the Holy Roman Empire. Lübeck, Germany, had a long history before the manufacture of this coin as an important port city, and a powerful member of the Hanseatic League, a network combining defense and economic interdependence to create domination of maritime trade and political power in the Baltic and northern European regions in the medieval period. To date, this is the only German coin found by archaeologists at Jamestown.

The obverse features a central shield with decorative flourishes divided into a plain field across the top and a crosshatched field across the bottom. The surrounding legend is an abbreviated version of “Moneta Nova Lubeck,” or “new money of Lübeck”. The reverse includes a central crowned double-headed eagle, a symbol associated with the Hanseatic League and the Holy Roman Empire. The surrounding legend, “CIVITAT IMPERIA” translates as “Imperial City.”

The date of the Sechsling is indicated by two digits appearing on the obverse in the legend after the letter “E” of LUBE. The numbers seem to be a “2” followed by another, undiscernible digit, indicating the coin was manufactured between 1620 and 1629.

The number “96,” which appears in the legend on the obverse after the letter “O” and before the letter “L” indicates the coin’s value. A Sechsling was worth 1/96 of a Reichstaler, meaning ninety-six Sechslings were equivalent to one Reichstaler.

Unfortunately, we will never know in whose pocket this coin traveled across the Atlantic. However, people from Continental Europe came to Jamestown as early as 1608. Dr. Johannes Fleischer, a physician and botanist was the first Continental European and first Lutheran to join the Englishmen at Jamestown in the spring of 1608 with the First Supply. Fleischer was born in Breslau (now Worclaw, Poland), another city that was part of both the Hanseatic League and the Holy Roman Empire. He came to Virginia at only twenty-six years old, and died just a few months after his arrival, in the late summer of 1608.

More Continental European men came to Jamestown in October 1608.  Carpenters, glassmakers, and individuals who had knowledge of pitch, tar, and potash came aboard the Mary and Margaret as part of the Second Supply. While these individuals could not have carried this later coin to Virginia, their presence in the English colony is significant, as they brought specific skills and unique materials that were part of early life at the fort site.