German States, Nürnberg (Nuremberg, Free Imperial City) AV Goldgulden. 1509. ✠ MONETA ⦂ COMVNIS ⦂ D ⦂ NVMBERG ⦂, eagle facing, head to left, with wings spread and N in relief within shallow incuse square on breast; date to upper left / SANCTVS ⦂ LAVRENCIVS, St. Laurence standing facing, wearing dalmatic, holding Book of Gospels in left hand and gridiron over right shoulder. Kellner 6; Friedberg 1801. 3.21g, 24mm, 10h.

Good Very Fine; lustrous. Rare.

From the collection of GK;
Ex Numismatica Ranieri, Auction 14, 9 November 2019, lot 1140.

St. Laurence was one of the seven deacons of the city of Rome under Pope Sixtus II who were martyred in the persecution of the Christians that the Roman Emperor Valerian ordered in AD 258. Prudentius ("A Hymn in Honour of the Passion of the Most Blessed Martyr Laurence", in Peristephanon, II, 108-141) tells us that Laurence was imprisoned, flogged and then burnt on the gridiron in retribution for distributing the riches of the Church among the poor of the city, hence the presence of this instrument of medieval torture as one of his attributes.