Falschmünzerei Radegast

About the museum

The Falschmünzerei (counterfeit mint) in Radegast opened in 2003 after research in archives and libraries. It commemorates the apothecary Ziervogel, who settled in Radegast around 1780, led a respectable bourgeois life and secretly forged Prussian groschen in the cellar of his pharmacy. At first he struck the coins with a heavy hammer, which was loud and of poor quality; with a hand screw press he produced better pieces. In 1786 he was discovered and taken to Halle, and in 1787 he was sentenced to death by the sword.

In the workshop, which adjoins the rooms of the Heimat- und Trachtenverein (local heritage and traditional costume association) Radegast, medals are still struck to this day in tin, copper or fine silver, and on request in gold. The first press was a loan that was terminated at the end of 2011. With funding from the Anhalt-Bitterfeld district and support from the town, a new spindle press was acquired, converted and inaugurated on May 13, 2012; it reaches a striking pressure of about 25 tons. With a smaller, mobile press, the counterfeiter and his accomplice also appear at town and village festivals.

Highlights

• See medals struck with the historic hand-operated screw press
• History of the counterfeiter Ziervogel around 1780
• Strikes in tin, copper, fine silver or gold
• Demonstration strikes with the mobile press at festivals

Founded

2003

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