Salzburg 1656 1/9 thaler
This specimen was lot 19 in Schulman auction 389 (Amsterdam, December 2025), where it sold for €320 (about US$451 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted, "Austria - 1/9 Thaler Klippe 1656, Silver, GUIDOBALD von THUN und HOHENSTEIN 1654-1668, AUSTRIAN STATES, SALZBURG Virgin Mary with infant seated above bishops arms. Rev. saint Rudbert above arms. Ex Cherry Tree Collection. PCGS AU55." The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This klippe type was struck 1656, 1660, 1666. No round version exists, as far as we can tell. In the mid seventeenth century, one thaler was 72 kreuzer, making this coin six kreuzer or two groschen. 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, 26 mm square, this specimen 3.40 g.
Catalog reference: KM 180, Dav-3263.
- 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.
- Davenport, John S., European Crowns, 1600-1700, Galesburg, IL, 1974.
- [1]Absil, Andrew, Olle Cederholm, Erik de Visser and Rik van Noorloos, Schulman sale 389: Ex Cherry Tree Collection, Amsterdam: Schulman b.v., 2025.
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