Basel 1640 thaler Dav-4610
This specimen was lot 638 in Künker eLive Auction 66 (Osnabrück, 4 May 2021) where it sold for 270 EUR (about US$325) The lot description noted: "EUROPEAN COINS AND MEDALS, SWITZERLAND, BASEL, Stadt. Taler 1640. Dav-4606. Rand bearbeitet, min. berieben, sehr schön (city of Basel, thaler of 1640, tooling on edge, cleaned, very fine)." Basel struck numerous varieties of thalers (Dav-4606 thru -4611) in 1640, varying as follows:
- Dav-4606: large arabesques framing the city arms; the cherub with wings up, down or furled;
- Dav-4607: slimmer arabesques framing the city arms with a dot in front of "·MONETA";
- Dav-4608: no arabesques around the city arms;
- Dav-4609: slimmer arabesques with dots in the obverse legend instead of rosettes;
- Dav-4610: arabesques tied up with ribbons and small rosettes in the obverse legend (shown here);
- Dav-4611: city name spelled "BASILEESIS".
Since they are all worth about the same, most auction cataloguers don't bother to attribute them accurately. Winterstein[1] lists W-78 thru W-103 for this issue, including some with arabesques on the eagle side, not mentioned in Davenport.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 27,54 g.
Catalog reference: D./T. 1337; Dav-4610, KM B94.3.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- Davenport, John S., European Crowns, 1600-1700, Galesburg, IL, 1974.
- Richter, Jürg, and Ruedi Kunzmann, Neuer HMZ-Katalog, Band 2: Die Münzen der Schweiz und Liechtensteins 15//16. Jahrhundert bis Gegenwart, Regenstauf, Germany: H. Gietl Verlag GmbH, 2006.
- [1]Winterstein, Christian, Die Taler Von Basel, Basel: Schweizerischer Bankverein Basel, 1983.
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