Stephan Schlick (1487–1526), Count of Passoun, Lord of Weißkirchen, Loket, and Ostrov, was a Czech, German-speaking nobleman and mining entrepreneur. He was the eldest son of Count Kaspar Schlick II and Countess Elisabeth von Gutenstein. Kaspar Schlick I, Chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire and founder of the dynasty, was his great-uncle. In 1515, Stephan inherited his father’s estate. That same year, silver was discovered on his lands near the small settlement of Konradsgrün. Together with partners, he formed a mining company, borrowed capital from Nuremberg bankers in 1516, built the first smelters, and founded the settlement of Thal (‚Valley‘). The following year, it was renamed ‚Sankt Joachimsthal‘ (after St Joachim), following the pattern of Sankt Annaberg (after St Anne). In 1517, Schlick built Freudenstein Castle to protect the settlement and mines, as well as to accommodate mining officials. From 1519 onwards, he had the first coining trials performed at the castle. To repay his loan and profit from the extracted silver, Schlick needed to secure coining rights, which belonged to the king. He and his brothers were granted these rights in April 1520 based on a decision of the regional diet, and King Louis confirmed them in 1523. Schlick primarily minted large silver guldiners, known as thalers or tolars. He strictly enforced regulations regarding silver content, ordering coin assays to be conducted twice a year at the Leipzig Trade Fair. In addition, he intentionally promoted the distribution of the coins, agreeing with the rulers of Saxony that thalers would also circulate within their territories.
In 1518, he issued his own mining code consisting of 106 articles. Influenced by the Annaberg Mining Code of 1509, it informed later Czech mining codes and led to a convergence between Saxon and Czech mining law. On 6 January 1520, King Louis elevated the settlement to the status of a ‚free mining town‘. Within just a few years, this burgeoning centre (which by around 1530 had reached 18,000 inhabitants, making it the second most populous town in Bohemia) experienced turbulent times. Schlick managed to end rebellions in 1517, 1522/1523, and 1525 through negotiations and concessions. The last of these uprisings, linked to the German Peasants‘ War, affected other mining towns as well, but hit Jáchymov the hardest. The castle, town hall, and mint were looted by rebellious miners. Ultimately, this uprising was also quelled, primarily through the promise of impunity for those who had not taken part in the looting. Schlick applied almost no repressive measures, in part to protect the capital, mines, and smelters. Following the rebellion, several amendments were added to the 1518 mining code, which was printed 1525.
Like other members of the Schlick family, Stephan was receptive to the Lutheran Reformation, which had been spreading from Germany since 1517. Even before the settlement became a town, he purchased the advowson (patronage rights) from the archdeacon of Falknov/Sokolov and transferred it to the municipality, enabling the town to select its own parish priest. As a result, Jáchymov gradually became a Lutheran town. In 1521, Stephan married Margareta Pflug of Rabenstein. They had a son, Moritz, and a daughter, Sybilla.
Together with miners from Jáchymov, he marched twice to assist King Louis against the Ottoman army in Hungary, first in 1521. The second expedition, however, proved fatal. Following the catastrophic defeat at the Battle of Mohács on 29 August 1526, all trace of him was lost. Rumours circulated that he had been sold into slavery in Armenia. However, searches by his family, who sent two envoys to Constantinople in 1527, yielded no results. Until 1528, he was still regarded as the head of the house, co-owner of the family estates, and primary holder of the minting privilege. Eventually, he was declared dead. King Ferdinand I, who ascended the throne in 1527, took advantage of the situation and, at the regional diet of České Budějovice in 1528, secured renewed recognition of the minting right as a royal prerogative vested in the king. The heirs were permitted to continue minting coins, but only bearing the royal coat of arms and name, in line with other royal mints.