Salzburg 1538 ducat Fr-600
This specimen was lot 2539 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,300 (about US$1,680 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Matthäus Lang von Wellenburg, 1519-1540. Dukat 1538. GOLD. R Min. Randfehler, fast vorzüglich. Exemplar der Auktion H. D. Rauch 45, Wien 1990, Nr. 2484. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Matthäus Lang of Wellenburg, 1519-40, ducat of 1538. Rare, rim nicks, about extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type is listed for 1519-40, i.e., the archbishop's entire reign yet it remains scarce. In the seventeenth century, 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.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 3.50 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 3.49 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-600; Probszt 188; Zöttl 173 (Type 5).
- 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.
- 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.
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