Salzburg 1561 1/2 thaler
This specimen was lot 2643 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €900 (about US$1,163 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, 1560-1586. 1/2 Reichstaler 1561. RR Feine Patina, sehr schön-vorzüglich. Exemplar der Auktion Bankhaus Aufhäuser 2, München 1985, Nr. 1411. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Jacob Khuen of Belasi, 1560-86, half thaler of 1561. Very rare, fine 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 now when this type was struck but the very similar thaler (Dav-8174) was struck 1561-67. 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 14.29 g.
Catalog reference: Probszt 544; Zöttl 652 (Type 1).
- 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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