2943) Wilhelm Schickard (1592–1635), Astronomer, Mathematician, Inventor, Federal Republic of Germany: "400th Anniversary of Wilhelm Schickard’s calculator (1623-2023)": A €20 (Twenty Euro) Silver Proof Coin issued by the Munze Deutschland minted by the Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt at their facilities in Munich, celebrates the milestone: Date/Year of Coin issue: 03.08.2023:
The Reverse and Obverse of the 20 Euro Silver Coin are presented against a background representation of a portrait of Wilhelm Schickard and his calculating machine.
The German Ministry of Finance, along with Munze Deutschland, have released this year’s third €20 silver commemorative coin, which marks the 400th anniversary of the invention of the first mechanical calculator that could perform all four basic arithmetic operations.
The device was the brainchild of astronomer and mathematician Wilhelm Schickard (1592–1635), who in 1623 successfully demonstrated that the central mechanism of his calculating machine was capable of adding and subtracting numbers of up to six digits.
Schickard has been called "the father of the computer age".
About Wilhelm Schickard - a brief:
Wilhelm Schickard (22 April 1592 – 24 October 1635) was a German professor of Hebrew and Astronomy who became famous in the second part of the 20th century after Franz Hammer, a biographer (along with Max Caspar) of Johannes Kepler, claimed that the drawings of a calculating clock, predating the public release of Pascal's calculator by twenty years, had been discovered in two unknown letters written by Schickard to Johannes Kepler in 1623 and 1624.
Hammer asserted that because these letters had been lost for three hundred years, Blaise Pascal had been called and celebrated as the inventor of the mechanical calculator in error during all this time.
Schickard's machine was the first of several designs of direct entry calculating machines in the 17th century (including the designs of Blaise Pascal, Tito Burattini, Samuel Morland and René Grillet).
The Schickard machine was particularly notable for its integration of an ingenious system of rotated Napier's rods for multiplication with a first known design for an adding machine, operated by rotating knobs for input, and with a register of rotated numbers showing in windows for output.
Later devices, such as Moreland's multiplying and adding instruments when used together, Caspar Schott's Cistula, René Grillet's machine arithmétique, and Claude Perrault's rhabdologique at the end of the century, and later, the Bamberger Omega developed in the early 20th century, certainly followed the same path pioneered by Schickard with his groundbreaking combination of a form of Napier's rods and adding machine designed to assist multiplication.
More on Schickard's life and works:
Born in Herrenberg, a small town in present-day Baden-Württemberg, in 1592, he was the son of a sculptor and nephew of the eminent architect of the Renaissance-era, Heinrich Schickard.
At the age of 18, Wilhelm was awarded a scholarship to study at the University of Tübingen, where he chose to study theology, ultimately becoming a professor of Hebrew in 1619.
One of his early notable contributions to higher learning was the Hebrew language school he founded, and which was still in use long after his death.
In addition to his teaching activities, Schickard was keenly interested in astronomy, and in 1631, he also became a professor of the subject.
As a very versatile scientist, he created the first precise map of Württemberg as well as various mechanical constructions, such as the Rota Hebraea, a mechanical device for reading the conjugation of Hebrew verbs.
Schickard’s hand-held planetarium was capable of accurately showing the movement of the the sun, the earth, and illustrated the moon that could be switched between heliocentric and geocentric representation.
However, it was the creation of what Schickard’s contemporaries referred to as the calculating clock, which was, for many, a device that was clearly ahead of its time.
The central mechanism consisted of six gears with the numbers zero to nine, each of which is firmly connected to an underlying gear that has only one tooth.
This ensured that when changing from nine to zero and vice versa, the adjacent number wheel turned exactly one digit forward or backwards.
The movements and its operation demonstrated it was capable of adding and subtracting numbers of up to six digits as well as having the accurate ability to calculate multiplication and division.
In correspondence with the famed astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571–1630), whom Schickard had met in 1617, he wrote about his invention, “Machinam extruxi quae datos numeros computer,” (“I constructed a machine that can calculate”).
Unfortunately, no versions of the device survived to the present day.
However, as biographers of Kepler uncovered Schickard’s sketches and notes for the machine that he sent to Kepler in letters, the Tübingen philosophy professor Bruno Baron von Freytag-Loeringhoff succeeded in reconstructing the machine in 1957.
Presently, replicas of the machine are in the Stadtmuseum Tübingen and in the computer museum of the Wilhelm Schickard Institute.
The Coins:
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The Reverse and Obverse of the 20 Euro Silver coin placed with an image of the calculator invented by Schickard.
The Proof-quality coins have been minted by the Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt at their facilities in Munich on behalf of the Ministry of Finance.
The Reverse of the 20 Euro Silver Proof Coin presents a depiction of Schickard’s schematised historical calculating machine in the centre along with representations of functional connections, such as the gear mechanism, that are illustrated in the style of a diagram.
The commemorative inscription "400 JAHRE RECHENMASCHINE" (“400 years of the calculator”) is placed above the primary design and the name "WILHELM SCHICKARD" in stylised text is shown just under the calculator.
The Obverse of the 20 Euro Silver Proof Coin depicts a stylised eagle, which is engraved in the centre with the coins’ denomination of "20 EURO" with the issuer "BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND" placed below the face value.
There are vertical rows of four, five-pointed stars placed on each side of the eagle and one horizontal row below the eagle.
Below those stars is the coin’s fineness "SILBER 925", with the year of issue "2023" seen on the left side of the coin and "D" mintmark (denoting the Munich Mint) on the right.
The coins include an incused inscription on the edge, which reads "MACHINAM EXTRUXI QUAE DATOS NUMEROS COMPUTET × (“I constructed a machine that can calculate”).
The specifications of the €20 (Twenty Euro) Silver Coin are:
Country of issue: Federal Republic of Germany (BUNDESREPUBLIK DEUTSCHLAND); Date/Year: 03.08.2023; Coin Theme: "400th Anniversary of Wilhelm Schickard’s calculator (1623-2023)"; Denomination/Face Value: €20 (Twenty Euro); Metal Composition: .925 Fineness Silver (Ag); Weight: 18.00 grams; Coin Quality: Proof (P) + Uncirculated (U); Diameter/Size: 32.50 mm; Edge lettering: "MACHINAM EXTRUXI QUAE DATOS NUMEROS COMPUTET ×"; Embossing Quality: Mirror Gloss; Minted By: The Bayerisches Hauptmünzamt at their facilities in Munich on behalf of the Ministry of Finance; Mint Mark:"D" (for the Munich Mint); Designed by: Florian Huhoff; Mintage: 120,000 pieces.
- The Proof-quality collector’s edition is encapsulated and presented in a folder.
- Towards the end of the year, the entire €20 coin collection consisting of four 2023-dated pieces will be available in Proof quality and as a set presented in an official blister-pak type folder.
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