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Contemporaries from Croatia

Nicola III Zrinski (*1488?, †1534)
Nicola IV Zrinski (*1508/18?, †1566)

Nikola (Nicolaus) III Zrinski (*1488?, †1534)
Nikola came from an old Croatian family who named themselves after the castle Zrin.
His father, Peter II Zrinski (approx. 1435-1493), had received the mining rights from King Matthias I Corvinus (1458-1490) around 1463. Nikola minted denarii in 1521 and 1526 at his castle Gvozdansko, following the design of the Hungarian coins, but with a small addition under the image of the Madonna: the Zrinski coat of arms (two vertically set eagle wings).
After the death of King Louis II in the battle of Mohács, the assembled Croatian nobility elected Archduke Ferdinand I as the new king on January 1st, 1527. Nikola III Zrinski was one of the 6 princes who signed the ballot papers.
Nikola Zrinski minted Grossi (Groschen) with his title and his portrait in 1527. It is not known whether this was approved by the new king. Some of the Croatian nobles forbade the circulation of these coins in their sphere of influence in 1528. Nikola then turned to his king, who in 1529 issued rules for weight and fineness for Hungarian pennies to be minted from Nikola's silver.


Grosus 1527, Gvozdansko.     Ø 25 mm, 16,8 g.   Mimica p.74, no.57; Appel p.1258, no.4423.
Obv.:  ·:·DOMINVS·ADIVtor·ET·PROTECtor·MEVS   "God is my assistant and my protector"
Bust to the right, with a broad flat hat and the date 15 - 27.
Rev.:   MONETA·NICOLAI·COMITIS·ZRiniensis·
Family coat of arms (two eagle wings), on it a helmet with a dragon's head on top.


Broad Grosus n. d. (1527), Gvozdansko.     Ø 29 mm, 11,8 g.   Mimica p.75 no.63.
⁕DOMINVS·ADIVTOR·ET·PROTECTOR·MEVS   //   MONETA·NICOLAI COMITIS·ZRINIENSis

Nikola IV Zrinski (*1508/18?, †1566)
- son of Nikola III Zrinski -
Nikola IV took part in the defense of Vienna in 1529 during the first siege by the Ottomans. In 1542 he saved the imperial army from defeat at Pest when he intervened with 400 Croatians.
Nikolas was in command of the Szigetvár fortress when it was besieged again by an Ottoman army in 1566. In a hopeless situation, on September 6, he and his remaining 217 men dared to make an outfall. None of them survived. Two days earlier the leader of the Ottomans, Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent, had died in the besiegers' encampment.
Nikola IV Zrinski is considered a national hero in Croatia and Hungary.


Lit.:
• Wikipedia :   Nikola III. Zrinski ,   Nikola IV. Zrinski   und   Belagerung von Szigetvár
• Bože Mimica: Numizmatika na povijesnom tlu Hrvatske (Numismatik auf dem hist. Boden Kroatiens), 1992.
• Ivan Mirnik: The Gvozdansko mines and mint. (Englisch nur Zusammenfassung), Zagreb 1992.
• Ivan Mirnik: The mining and minting rights of Croatian aristocracy (Englisch nur Zusammenfassung) 2006.
• J. Appel: Münzen und Medaillen der weltlichen Fürsten und Herren aus dem MA und der NZ, 3.Bd., Wien 1824.

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