Salzburg (1593) 1/2 thaler
The first specimen was lot 2712 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €550 (about US$711 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612. 1/2 Reichstalerklippe o. J. (1593), Turmprägung. Geschenkmünze an die Truppen. Flaches Gepräge; Attraktives Exemplar mit feiner Tönung, fast vorzüglich. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612, undated klippe half thaler, tower design struck for the troops. Flat strike, attractive example with fine toning, about extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This half thaler was one of a series of gold and silver coins struck to pay troops raised for an expedition against the Turks. Salzburg was blessed with a number of productive silver mines and the prince-archbishop was a prolific issuer of coins, particularly thalers. The archbishopric was secularized in 1803 and passed to Austria in 1814. The second specimen was lot 847 in Stephen Album sale 50 (Santa Rosa, CA, September 2024), where it sold for $780. The catalog description[2] noted, "AUSTRIA: Markus Sittich, 1593-1617, AR thaler 14.27 g, ND, KM-28, Dav-3493, klippe type, reverse depicting tower above the waves buffeted by rain and personifications of the four winds, does not appear to have any mount marks (which is unusual), may have possibly been cleaned and re-toned, XF, ex Almer H. Orr III Collection." Altho the auctioneers catalogued the second specimen as a thaler, the weight makes it a half thaler, which is why it appears here.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 14,28 g.
Catalog reference: Probszt 810; Zöttl 959 (Type 6).
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Helmut Zöttl, Salzburg Münzen und Medaillen, 1500-1810, 2 vols. Salzburg: Verlag Fruhwald, 2008.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Katalog 384: Münzen, Medaillen und Marken von Salzburg - Die Sammlung Professor Dr. Franz Schedel, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2023.
- [2]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 50, featuring selections from the Dr. Robert A. Rosenfeld Collection, the Hakim Hamidi Collection, the Almer H. Orr III Collection and the Solar Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
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