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Many Protestant countries initially objected to adopting a Catholic innovation, the Gregorian calendar. Some Protestants feared the new calendar was part of a plot to return them to the Catholic fold. The last year, when the left out of 10 days was enough to synchronize the Gregorian and Julian calendars was 1700. Those who missed it had to left out 11 days, and 1-1 more with every century passed.

Leaving out days from the calendar and therefore from the everyday life was not easy. To make it more acceptable to the public some advertizing must have been performed. Some medals were issued for the occasion. On one side of such a medal issued in 1700 the Janus faces were depicted, much similar to new year medals (the meaning of this is that one face looks back to the passed year, while the other looks to the future). What makes it different from ordinary new year medals the days and dates written on the pillar in the center. It shows that in 1700 18th February was followed by 1st March, that is 10 days were left out.

Left to the pillar the Sun, right the full Moon was placed. Latin legend in two rows above is:  "ANNO, QVO MENDÆ CORRECTÆ, IPSÆQ CALENDÆ – FASTORVM, A CHRISTONATO, SVM CVSVS ET ISTO" German legend below in two lines is: "GEENDERTN CALENDERS-DENKZAHL" The meaning of these text is: “I was stuck in that year, when the error of the beginning of weekdays and month was corrected, from the birth of Christ, and in this (is) the mnemonic of the changed calendar." And sure, if we summarize the roman numbers displayed by bigger capitals in the texts we get 1700 in both the Latin and the German text (chronosticon). It is also visible the 18th February was Sunday (Sonntag) in that year, and 1st March was Monday (Montag), so the left-out of 10 days had no effect on the order of days. (Which is a must for every calendar reforms.) At the bottom the signature of the medalist GFN, Georg Friedrich Nürnberger (1677-1721) is visible.

Calendar 1 reverseCalendar 1 obverse

On the reverse of this coin two men are visible. As we do not know exactly the issuer of this medal, we just suspect that one of them is a ruler of a protestant country. Possibly he is Frederick III the elector of Brandenburg, who from 1701 was named Frederick I "king in Prussia". The other man, holding a telescope and pointing to the sky could be his astronomer, namely Gottfried Kirch, the first "astronomer royal" in Berlin. At the elbow of the king the sign of Mercury, while on the top, pointed by the astronomer, the sign of Mars is visible. The legend is also mentions these planets: "CYLLENIVS HÆRET ET COELVM MARS SOLVS HABET", meaning Mercury is hiding and Mars rules the sky alone. This is a citation of Pharsalia, the work of the Roman poet Lucan, telling of the civil war between Julius Caesar and the forces of the Roman Senate led by Pompey the Great.

The meaning of the revers is really portentous, possibly refers to the coming War of the Spanish Succession, and has not too much to do with the calendar reform.