Editing Thaler (section)

===City view thalers and lösers===
[[File:Germany-Hamburg-1679-Half Bankportugalöser-5 ducats.jpg|thumb|left|300px|Half portugalöser (five ducats) minted in Hamburg, 1679]]

The "city view" thalers of the 17th and 18th century have predecessors in stylised representations of cities (as three towers, or a city gate) on the obverse of thaler coins in the late 16th century, such as the [[Lüneburg]] thaler of [[Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor|Rudolf II]] made in 1584. More elaborate city views become current in the first half of the 17th century (e.g. [[Augsburg]] 1627, [[Nürnberg]] 1631).
The type continues to be popular throughout the 18th century, culminating in detailed city panoramas rendered in [[Perspective (graphical)|one-point perspective]].

In the late 16th and 17th centuries, there was a fashion of oversized thaler coins, the so-called "multiple thalers", often called ''[[:de:Löser (Numismatik)|Löser]]'' in Germany. The first were minted in the [[Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg]], and indeed the majority were struck there. Some of these coins reached colossal size, as much as sixteen normal thalers, exceeding a full pound (over 450&nbsp;g) of silver and being over {{convert|12|cm|0|abbr=on}} in diameter. The name ''Löser'' most likely was derived from a large gold coin minted in Hamburg called the ''portugalöser'', worth 10 ducats, which were based on Portuguese 10-ducat coins.<ref>[https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/gold-medallic-portugal%C3%B6ser-10-ducats/uQHONtHLqqpnww?hl=en Gold medallic portugalöser (10 ducats)]</ref> Eventually the term was applied to numerous similar coins worth more than a single thaler. These coins are very rare and highly sought after by collectors. As few of them were circulated in any real sense, they are often well-preserved.