Very rare forgery of Fein of crown two-ducat coin from 1533. Coin made by a well-known and at the same time valued forger of Polish coins, who, as Mańkowski writes, surpassed the famous MAJNERT in his craft. The dies were hand-made by engraver and goldsmith FEIN on behalf of attorney Hausmann, who was the initiator of the entire procedure of forging coins. These coins were introduced into the collector's circulation by the third of the gentlemen, Zelman Igel, who introduced so many of these coins into circulation that while in Poland fake thalers were called Majnert, in Germany fake ducats were called Igel. Igel's forgeries found their way into the most distinguished 19th-century collections, including the Ossolineum, the Potocki collection, or the collection of Countess Izabella Starzyńska.
Specimen of extraordinary class coming from the above-mentioned, legendary Collection of Countess Izabela Starzyńska and, more recently, from the distinguished Collection of Lech Kokociński.
It is worth noting that she was one of the few women in the group of great numismatists and great Polish collections.
In "Collections of Polish Coins and Medals", authored by J. Strzałkowski, we read: "Starzyńska Izabela, 1807-1897, daughter of minister T. Mostowski, in the years 1823-1829 the second wife of Aleksander Potocki... Before 1853 she inherited the collection from A. Urbanowski and supplemented it with purchases in Warsaw and later in Dresden. In 1865... the collection consisted of 2,555 coins and 274 medals. She had two beautiful coin cabinets after Marie Antoinette. The collection was sold at auction in 1885 at the Berlin firm of Weyl. The rarest ones ended up in the collections of: E. Hutten-Czapski, A. Plater and K. Sobański. The catalogue of the collection was prepared by K. Beyer...".
The information provided by Strzałkowski regarding the auction sale is imprecise. He mentions an auction organized in 1885 by Adolph Weyl's company, while the sale of Countess Starzyńska's collection took place at an auction in 1883 (the presented item appeared as item 90 in the auction catalog), and in the form of an offer only in 1885.
Obverse: bust of the king facing right
SIGIS PRI REX POLONIE MD LITHVA 1533
Reverse: crowned coat of arms with a small Austrian shield in the middle, on the sides the initials CS, Cracovia Spitikus, Spytek Tarnowski, Grand Treasurer of the Crown
RVSS TO PRVSS ET MAZO D ET HERESS
Gold, diameter 30 mm, weight 6.85 g
