Gros a la Madone Publique Deposited
A silver coin originally issued at Goslar in 1505 with a value of eighty to the Mark, and consequently inferior to the Bohemian Groschen, which were computed at sixty to the Mark. These coins received their name from the figure of the Virgin and Child on the reverse. In Adam Berg's New Muntzbuch, 1597, they are called Margengroschen, and their value is stated to be equal to ten white Pfennige.
The type was copied in Hanover, Brunswick-Luneburg, and many parts of Westphalia. During the seventeenth century this coin was legalized at one thirty-sixth of the Thaler, or one twenty-fourth of the Gulden, and numerous multiples and divisions were struck.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)