Salzburg 1651 1/4 thaler KM-103
This specimen was lot 2837 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €500 (about US$646 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Paris von Lodron, 1619-1653. 1/4 Reichstalerklippe 1651. R Attraktives Exemplar mit feiner Patina, vorzüglich. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Paris von Lodron, 1619-53, klippe quarter thaler of 1651. Rare, attractive example with fine patina, 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, 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 7.16 g.
Catalog reference: KM 103, Probszt unlisted; Zöttl 1569 (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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