Beware!: A coin counterfeited by “the Jew Nathan Guntz.” No U.S. copies.

[Engraving] / [Numismatics] / [Forgery]. Ein Hoch-Edler / und Hoch-weiser Rath dieser deß Heiligen Römischen Reichs Freyer Stadt Augspurg / füget hiemit Männiglichen Kund und Zuwissen: Wie daß durch den Juden Nathan Guntz zu Steppach, etliche Stück Beyschläg von Hoch-Fürstl: Würtenbergischen Carl d’Or mit der Jahr Zahl 1735. Nach Ausweis deß Unten beygefügten Abdrucks dieser Tagen anhero gebracht, und an Zahlung außgegeben worden, seynd ... Decretum in Senatu, den 24. Octobris 1739. S.l. [likely Augburg]: S.n., s.a. [decree dated 24 October 1739]. Folio broadside [36.2 x 24.9 cm], [1] letterpress text with etching of coin. Folds, chipping and toning to right and left edges.
 
 
Rare (no U. S. examples and 2 worldwide) 1739 German broadside warning of the recent circulation of a debased or counterfeited gold coin, namely a Würtemberg "Carl d’Or" struck with date of 1735. The text states that this forgery was perpetuated by a certain Jew named Nathan Guntz, a resident of the Augsburg suburb of Steppach (“Wie daß durch den Juden Nathan Guntz zu Steppach, etliche Stück Beyschläg”). I find no mention of this crime (or false, even antisemitic accusation) in modern scholarship.
 
Added to the letterpress text is an etching of the obverse and reverse of the coin in question. Such broadsides were produced in great numbers in the early modern period in a never-ending attempt to counteract the ceaseless production of money that was not what it claimed to be. But being ephemeral in nature and often displayed in the open, broadsides of this sort rarely survive today.
 
Suspect coins generally were simply described with text on such broadsides, and sometimes they were illustrated with rather crude woodcut images. Intaglio reproductions of coins, as seen here, were less commonly paired with letterpress text, given that copperplates were more expensive to engrave/etch than woodblocks and required an additional run though a roller press. The benefit was in the better accuracy of an image, which was, of course, produced by an art analogous to the cutting of the dies from which coinage was struck.
 
 
This broadside is not located by OCLC and KVK at the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek and the 
Universitätsbibliothek Johann Christian Senckenberg (i.e., Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main).
 
*Anton Faber, ed., Der Europäischen Staats-Canzley, vol. 77 (1741), pp. 253-54 (a transcription of the text of the broadside).