Ragusa 1747 1/2 tallero
This specimen was lot 35051 in Heritage sale 3094 (Chicago, August 2021), where it sold for $10,200. The catalog description[1] noted, "Ragusa: Republic 1/2 Tallero (1/2 Vizlin) 1747 VF25 NGC, An immensely elusive type in all states of preservation, this denomination represented by a mere two specimens in NGC's census (this piece and the previous lot), with none yet seen by PCGS. Similar to the 1/2 Tallero of 1731, this date is also unrecorded by the Standard Catalog and known to the Corpus Nummorum Italicorum from a single example in the ReŠetar Collection (Dechant also records one in the C. Hirsch Collection), with none emerging from a survey of auction records from the past two decades. Though admitting substantial wear in-line with its certification, the type retains a remarkable degree of clarity to the legends and reverse arms for the grade, adjustment marks almost entirely confined to the area around the crown on the reverse." The only mention of this denomination in the SCWC is KM 13 for an unpriced issue of 1748. Clearly, its listings are incomplete. The Republic of Ragusa was a Christian enclave on the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. In the eighteenth century, it was an independent city-state surrounded and protected by the Ottoman Empire, which ruled most of the Balkans. Ragusa was occupied by French troops in 1805 and annexed by Austria in 1814.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver.
Catalog reference: KM13 (this date unlisted), Dechant-pg. 183, CNI-VIb.256.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Cristiano Bierrenbach, Warren Tucker and Sam Spiegel, ANA WFOM World & Ancient Coins Platinum Night Signature Auction #3094, featuring the Cape Coral Collection, the WTR Collection and the Monaco Collection, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2021.
Link to: