The idea of commemorating the posting of Martin Luther's theses in 1517 with a joint anniversary celebration goes back to the Palatinate Reformed under the leadership of Elector Frederick V of the Palatinate. At the Union Day of the Protestant Union held in Heilbronn in April 1617, the Elector, despite all the differences between Lutherans and Reformed, endeavored to show a demonstrative confessional unity of the Protestant Union vis-à-vis the Empire, the Emperor and the Catholic League.

The result of these tenacious efforts was the agreement to celebrate the anniversary on Sunday, November 2, 1617 in the churches of the countries of the Protestant Union during the church services, whereby “everyone may stick to their religion, sermon, church ceremony and doctrine”. The further organization of the celebrations was therefore to be left to the respective states, such as Electoral Saxony.

However, theologians at the University of Wittenberg also approached the Saxon Elector John George I to celebrate the day of the posting of the theses with an official ceremony there. The Dresden Oberkonsistorium, as the highest ecclesiastical authority, supported this idea, which led to Johann Georg instructing the church authorities in May 1617 to organize such a celebration for the whole of Electoral Saxony from 31.10. to 02.11. „“on a certain modum, also how and on which day such a jubilee celebration should be held”
to be prepared.

The coins described below were minted for this occasion under the direction of the mint master Heinrich von Rehnen at the Dresden mint. The die cutter of the first series was Ruprecht Niklas Kitzkatz.

The auction catalogs available in the library of the Münzkabinett Dresden and on the Internet as well as the coins found in the holdings of museums and collections are photographed and recorded in a separate database. Thanks to the large database already available, it has already been possible to classify the obverse and reverse dies of the four die sizes used. The results of the research are now being compiled into a catalog of variants and published as a book.

Stempelgrößen und Nominale der Prägungen von 1617