Salzburg 1566 2 ducats Fr-617
This specimen was lot 2604 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,
"Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, 1560-1586. 2 Dukaten 1566. GOLD. Winz. Kratzer, sehr schön-vorzüglich. Erworben im November 1985 von der Partin Bank, Bad Mergentheim. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Jacob Khuen of Belasi, 1560-86, double ducat of 1566. Light scratches, very fine to extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type is listed for 1561-67. While not cheap, it is the first double ducat not astronomically priced. 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 6.90 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-617; Probszt 472; Zöttl 536 (Type 1).
- 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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