Oldenburg 1840 2 thaler Dav-751
This specimen was lot 4319 in Künker sale 406 (Osnabrück, March 2024), where it sold for €2,400 (about US$3,149 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"OLDENBURG, GRAFSCHAFT, SEIT 1774 HERZOGTUM, AB 1829 GROSSHERZOGTUM. Paul Friedrich August, 1829-1853. Vereinsdoppeltaler 1840, für das Fürstentum Birkenfeld. Prachtexemplar. Min. Reste von Zaponlack, vorzüglich-Stempelglanz. Exemplar der Auktion Fritz Rudolf Künker 281, Osnabrück 2016, Nr. 2926. (Germany, grand duchy of Oldenburg, Paul Frederick Augustus, 1829-53, union double thaler of 1840, for the principality of Birkenfeld. Cabinet example, traces of lacquer, extremely fine to uncirculated.)"
This was the only double thaler issued by the grand duke. Birkenfeld, then the county of Sponheim, had been ruled by the margrave of Baden for several centuries when it was mediatized and seized by Napoleon in 1803. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the map of the Rhineland was redrawn and most of it, including Birkenfeld, went to Prussia. In 1817, Prussia retroceded it to Oldenburg as compensation for a slice of the North Sea coast. The grand duke accepted it rather reluctantly, as it was far from his main domain, and issued coins for it.
Recorded mintage: 9,650 plus proofs.
Specification: 37.12 g, 0.833 fine silver, this specimen 37.08 g.
Catalog reference: KM 173, AKS 8; Dav-751; Kahnt 321; Thun 239.
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Davenport, John S., European Crowns and Talers, Since 1800, 2nd Ed., London: Spink & Son, 1964.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Katalog 406: Gold Coins | Coins and Medals from the Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. Löwenstein-Wertheim | German Coins after 1871, a. o. Patterns from the Coenen Collection, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2024.
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