Bretzenheim 1790-AS 1/2 thaler
This specimen was lot 1255 in Stephen Album sale 43 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2022), where it sold for $2,160. The catalog description[1] noted, "BRETZENHEIM: Karl August, 1789-1803, AR ½ thaler, 1790, mintmaster AS, an attractive lightly toned mint state example! PCGS graded MS62." Wikipedia comments, "Baron Ignaz Felix von Roll zu Bernau was enfeoffed with Bretzenheim, selling it in 1772 to Count Karl August von Heydeck. This was the beginning of a special historical epoch in Bretzenheim. Count Karl August was Elector Karl Theodor's illegitimate, and still underage, son, and in 1774, he was raised to Imperial Count (Reichsgraf) and in 1789 to Imperial Prince (Reichsfürst), thus raising Bretzenheim itself from Imperial lordship (Reichsherrschaft) to Imperial principality (Reichsfürstentum). Among other things, this gave the Prince the right to mint his own coins, which were called Bretzenheimer Taler. Only six years later, though, in 1795, the principality was...occupied by the French along with the rest of the German lands on the Rhine’s left bank. After the Congress of Vienna, Bretzenheim was grouped into Prussia’s Rhine Province." This rare type was accompanied by a ten kreuzer, 20 kreuzer, thaler and ducat, all dated 1790. The population of the village in 1815 was 718.
Recorded mintage: unknown but rare.
Specification: 14.03 g, 0.833 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-3.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 43, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2021.
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