Anhalt-Zerbst 1742 2/3 thaler

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Sincona sale 18, lot 1217

This specimen was lot 1217 in Sincona sale 18 (Zürich, May 2014), where it sold for CHF 850 (about US$1,120 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,

"2/3 Taler 1742. Zerbst Auf den gemeinsamen Regierungsantritt. Vorzüglich. (Germany, Anhalt-Zerbst, two-thirds thaler of 1742, on the beginning of joint rule, extremely fine.)"

Thalers from eighteenth century Anhalt are very rare so collectors make do with this denomination, which was equal to a gulden. The dynastic affairs of this principality are very tangled. Wikipedia comments,

"In 1742 princes John Louis II and Christian August of Anhalt-Zerbst-Dornburg inherited Anhalt-Zerbst. After Christian August's death in 1747, his widow Johanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp governed the country for her son Frederick Augustus until 1752. She had the new castle at Dornburg built as her thirds from 1750, a lavish baroque palace prepared to host her brother, Adolf Frederick, King of Sweden, or her daughter Sophie Auguste Fredericka, who in 1745 had married the Russian crown prince Peter III, to become empress in 1762, better known as Catherine the Great. However, neither of them ever visited her, and the dowager princess and her son were forced into exile when Prussian forces invaded Anhalt-Zerbst during the Seven Years' War in 1758. Frederick the Great, who had actually proposed the Russian marriage, accused the princess and her son of supporting Russia, then his war enemy. Johanna Elisabeth died in Paris in 1760 and her son, Frederick Augustus, never returned to Zerbst and continued to live in Basel and Luxemburg. Upon his death in 1793, the Principality of Anhalt-Zerbst came to an end with its territory being divided among the Ascanian princes of Anhalt-Dessau, Anhalt-Köthen, and Anhalt-Bernburg while Jever was inherited by his sister, Catherine the Great, and remained under Russian rule until 1818."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 14.03 g, 0.833 fine silver, .375 troy oz ASW, this specimen 13.09 g.

Catalog reference: Mann 352, Dav-206, KM 32.

Source:

  • Davenport, John S., Silver Gulden, 1559-1763, Frankfurt am Main, Numismatischer Verlag P. N. Schulten, 1982
  • Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
  • [1]Numismatic Coins, Medals, & Banknotes: Auction 18, Zürich: SINCONA AG, 2014.

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