Salzburg 1579-SR 2 ducats Fr-636
This specimen was lot 2616 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,700 (about US$2,197 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi, 1560-1586. 2 Dukaten 1579, mit Titel Rudolfs II. GOLD. Winz. Prägeschwäche, vorzüglich. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Jacob Khuen of Belasi, 1560-86, double ducat of 1579, struck in the name of Rudolf II. Somewhat weakly struck, 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 1569-86. The obverse was redesigned to show St. Rupert above the arms, he having been displaced from the reverse by the imperial eagle. 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 6,97 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-636; Probszt 488; Zöttl 556 (Type 3).
- 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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