Salzburg 1552 1/2 guldiner
This specimen was lot 2583 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,600 (about US$2,068 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Ernst von Bayern, 1540-1554. 1/2 Guldiner 1552. Mit Kreuz am Anfang der Vorderseitenumschrift. RR Hübsche Patina, sehr schön-vorzüglich. Exemplar der Auktion Adolph Hess AG 260, Zürich 1991, Nr. 1422. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Ernest of Bavaria, 1540-54, half guldiner of 1552. With cross at start of obverse legend. Very rare, handsome patina, very fine to extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. We don't know when this type was struck but the matching thaler (Dav-8168) is listed for 1540, 1546 and 1549-54. A rare double guldiner (Dav-8167) was struck in 1551. Ernst was made archbishop without ever taking holy orders and finally abdicated in 1554 to Silesia after repeated deadlines from the pope. 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: silver, this specimen 14.44 g.
Catalog reference: Probszt 371; Zöttl 404.
- 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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