Bavaria 1858 1/2 krone Fr-281
This specimen was lot 1795 in Künker sale 352 (Osnabrück, Germany, September 2021), where it sold for €5,500 (about US$7,654 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"BAYERN, KONIGREICH, Maximilian II. 1848-1864. 1/2 Vereinskrone 1858. GOLD. Sehr seltener Jahrgang. Nur 1.020 Exemplare geprägt. Von polierten Stempeln, vorzüglich. Erworben 1937 bei der Firma Julius Jenke, München. (Germany, kingdom of Bavaria, Maximilian II, 1848-64, half union crown of 1858. Very rare date, only 1,020 examples struck. From polished dies, extremely fine. Bought from Julius Jenke in 1937.)"
This type was struck 1857-64 and all dates are rare. It was part of an experiment to unify gold coinage in Germany; Prussia, Austria, Hannover, Saxony and other states issued similar coins. The krone was dropped in favor of the gold twenty mark after unification in 1871.
Recorded mintage: 1,020.
Specification: 5.56 g, 0.900 fine gold, this specimen 5.57 g.
Catalog reference: KM 870, Divo/S. 38; Fr-281; Schl. 129.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Künker Auktion 352: Die Sammlung Hermann Schwarz: Faszination des gepragten Goldes. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2021.
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