Salzburg 1611 2 ducats Fr-660
This specimen was lot 2687 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,900 (about US$2,455 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612. 2 Dukaten 1611. GOLD. Sehr schön. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612, double ducat of 1611. Very fine.)"
Wikipedia comments,
"Perceptive, well-read, and a follower of Niccolò Machiavelli's ideas, Raitenau considered himself a genuine Renaissance prince of an absolutist state. He won fame not only as an art collector but also as a builder who significantly promoted the spread of the Baroque architecture north of the Alps: When Salzburg Cathedral was devastated by a fire on the night of 11 December 1598, he had plans set up for a lavish reconstruction by the Venetian architect Vincenzo Scamozzi, who also drew up a master plan for the adjacent Residenzplatz square and designed the Salzburg Residenz. The new cathedral was, however, erected under Raitenau's successor, Mark Sittich von Hohenems, and his architect, Santino Solari. In 1606 the archbishop had also a castle built for his mistress, Salome Alt, with whom he had fifteen illegitimate children; the castle later was converted into Mirabell Palace by his successor.
Raitenau's rule was brought down after he entered into a fierce dispute with his mighty neighbor, Duke Maximilian I of Bavaria: In 1609 the Archbishop refused to join Maximilian's Catholic League and in October 1611 his forces invaded the Berchtesgaden Provostry, which was also claimed by the Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. In the subsequent clashes of arms, Bavarian troops campaigned in Salzburg. Deserted by his cathedral chapter and abandoned by Emperor Rudolf II, Raitenau on his flight to Carinthia was captured, deposed and imprisoned for life by his nephew and successor, Mark Sittich von Hohenems, first at Hohenwerfen Castle and later in Hohensalzburg."
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type is listed for 1598-1611. The obverse shows the archbishop's arms and St. Rupert seated on the reverse. 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 6.94 g.
Catalog reference: Fr-660; Probszt 777; Zöttl 887 (Type 6).
- 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.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- 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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