Salzburg 1547 2 ducats Fr-605
This specimen was lot 2562 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €2,600 (about US$3,360 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Ernst von Bayern, 1540-1554. 2 Dukaten 1547. GOLD. RR Gestopftes Loch, durchgehender Schrötlingsfehler, sehr schön. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Ernest of Bavaria, 1540-54, double ducat of 1547. Rare, plugged, planchet defect, very fine.)
Ernst wurde 1500 als dritter Sohn des bayerischen Herzogs Albrecht IV. geboren. Nach dem Tod seines Vaters 1508 wurde er von dem berühmten Geschichtsschreiber Aventinus erzogen. Da der Vater mit einem Primogeniturgesetz im Jahr 1506 die Unteilbarkeit Bayerns beschlossen hatte, wurde Ernst gegen seinen Willen für den geistlichen Stand bestimmt. Er weigerte sich, die höheren Priesterweihen zu empfangen und wurde daher 1517 Administrator (und nicht Bischof) des Bistums Passau. Weil Bayern den Erzbischof Matthäus Lang im Bauernkrieg unterstützt hatte, wurde Ernst nach dessen Tod 1540 zum Administrator von Salzburg gewählt. Auf seinen Münzen fehlen die sonst üblichen erzbischöflichen Insignien und als Titel erscheint in der Regel die Formel "zum Erzbischof Konfirmierter". Nachdem Ernst eine zweite päpstliche Frist zum Erhalt der Priesterweihen verstreichen ließ dankte er 1554 ab und zog sich in seine bereits 1549 erworbene schlesische Grafschaft Glatz zurück, wo er 1560 starb. (Ernest was born in 1500 as the third son of Albert IV, duke of Bavaria. After his father's death in 1508, he was educated by the famous historian Aventinus. Since his father had decreed the indivisibility of Bavaria with a primogeniture law in 1506, Ernst was appointed to the clergy against his will. He refused to receive the higher priestly ordinations and therefore became administrator (rather than bishop) of the bishopric of Passau in 1517. Because Bavaria had supported Archbishop Matthäus Lang in the Peasants' War, Ernst was elected administrator of Salzburg after his death in 1540. The usual archbishop's insignia is missing on his coins and the formula "confirmed archbishop" usually appears as a title. After Ernst had allowed a second papal deadline to receive priestly ordinations to elapse, he abdicated in 1554 and retired to the Silesian county of Glatz, which he had acquired in 1549, and he died there in 1560.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type is listed for 1547-49 as very rare. 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: 7.00 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 6.55 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-605; Probszt 339; Zöttl 372.
- 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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