Salzburg 1695 1/4 thaler
This specimen was part of lot 3001 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), which sold for €1,000 (about US$1,292 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Johann Ernst von Thun und Hohenstein, 1687-1709. 1/4 Reichstaler 1695, 1696, 1699, 1700, 1703, 1706, 1707, 1708. Probszt 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835, 1836, 1839, 1840, 1841; Zöttl Type 3 = 2197, 2198, 2199, 2200, 2201, 2204, 2205, 2206. 8 Stück., Zum Teil mit kleinen Fehlern, sehr schön und besser. 1703: Exemplar der Auktion Bankhaus Partin 17, München 1983, Nr. 682. 1706: Exemplar der Auktion Lanz 31, München 1984, Nr. 520. (archbishopric of Salzburg, John Ernest of Thun and Hohenstein, 1687-1709, quarter thalers of 1695-1708. Eight pieces, some with small defects, very fine and better.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type was struck 1694-1700, 1703-08 and is rather scarce. The previous type (KM 281) did not show the Madonna and Child on the obverse. 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.
Catalog reference: KM 282, Probszt 1882; Zöttl 2197.
- 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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