Alsace (1627-30) 1/2 thaler
This specimen was lot 332 in Künker sale 400 (Berlin, February 2024), where it sold for €5,500 (about US$7,135 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"RÖMISCH-DEUTSCHES REICH, Erzherzog Leopold V. 1619-1632. 1/2 Reichstaler o. J. (1627-1630), Ensisheim. Geprägt mit den Stempeln des 1/4 Reichstalers. Sehr selten, besonders in dieser Erhaltung. Herrliche Patina, vorzüglich-Stempelglanz. (Holy Roman Empire, archduke Leopold V, 1619-32, undated half thaler, Ensisheim mint, struck with quarter thaler dies. Very rare, especially in this quality, superb patina, extremely fine to uncirculated.)"
This rare half thaler was struck at Ensisheim in Alsace for the archduke Leopold V and accompanied an undated quarter thaler. This example realized fifteen times the catalog value. Ensisheim would fall to the French at the end of the Thirty Years War.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 14.32 g.
Catalog reference: KM 266, M./T. 614; Klemesch 299.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Katalog 400: Selected löser of the Dukes of Guelph from the Friedrich Popken Collection | Numismatic treasures from the Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. "multiple portraits" from a Westphalian private collection, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2024.
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