Alchemical medallion from the reign of Leopold I

[Paul Ferguson]

"A golden medallion from the reign of Leopold I has been preserved which is supposed to have been transmuted from silver into gold using a tincture – in the presence of the Emperor. Another commemorative medallion has an inscription indicating that it was transmuted from lead into silver. They were apparently the result of experiments in alchemy carried out by Johann Joachim Becher, imperial counsellor and one of the three major economists of the seventeenth century – all of whom were, significantly, also alchemists. Becher was even made a kind of advisor in alchemical matters to the imperial Court under Leopold I. Among other things, he tried to transmute sand into gold."

https://www.habsburger.net/en/chapter/tu...rial-court