Salzburg 1636 1/4 thaler KM-103
This specimen was lot 2836 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €600 (about US$775 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Paris von Lodron, 1619-1653. 1/4 Reichstalerklippe 1636. Attraktives Exemplar mit feiner Patina, fast vorzüglich. Exemplar der Auktion Bankhaus Partin 25, München 1987, Nr. 739. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Paris von Lodron, 1619-53, klippe quarter thaler of 1636. Attractive example with fine patina, about extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. The quarter thaler was redesigned in 1624 to show the Madonna and Child on the obverse and St. Rupert on the reverse. The SCWC shows four varieties: KM 97 (round, with square-topped arms, struck 1625-26, 1639 and 1652), KM 88 (klippe, with square-topped arms, struck 1624-26, 1631, 1638-39, 1651-52), KM 98 (round, with oval arms, struck 1626, 1633-37, 1640-42) and KM 103 (klippe, with oval arms, struck 1626, 1633, 1636, 1640-42, shown here). The years of production overlapped, making it confusing. 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 7.04 g.
Catalog reference: KM 103, Probszt 1270; Zöttl 1563 (Type 10).
- 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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