Salzburg 1561 1/4 thaler
This specimen was lot 2655 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €850 (about US$1,098 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, 1560-1586. 1/4 Reichstalerklippe 1561. RR Henkelspur, sehr schön. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Jacob Khuen of Belasi, 1560-86, klippe quarter thaler of 1561. Very rare, mount mark, very 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. Klippe quarter thalers were likely minted in smaller numbers than the round versions but also more likely to be saved. 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 6.80 g.
Catalog reference: Probszt 560; Zöttl 687 (Type 2).
- 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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