Salzburg 1566 1/2 thaler
This specimen was part of lot 2645 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), which sold for €800 (about US$1,034 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, 1560-1586. 1/2 Reichstaler 1563, 1566. 13,60 g und 13,70 g. Probszt 548, 551; Zöttl 654 (Type 1), 656 (Type 1). RR 2 Stück., Korrodiert, fast sehr schön. 1563: Exemplar der Auktion Gerhard Hirsch Nachf. 172, München 1991, Nr. 1716. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Jacob Khuen of Belasi, 1560-86, half thalers of 1563 and 1566. Very rare, two pieces, corroded, about 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. 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 13,70 g.
Catalog reference: Probszt 551; Zöttl 656 (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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