Salzburg 1642 1/4 thaler KM-103
This specimen was lot 76164 in Stack's Bowers Collectors Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, November 2025), where it sold for $600. The catalog description[1] noted, "AUSTRIA. Salzburg. 1/4 Taler Klippe, 1642. Salzburg Mint. Paris von Lodron. PCGS AU-55." 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, 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 7.09 g.
Catalog reference: KM-103.
- 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]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, November 2025 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2025.
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