Salzburg 1709 1/2 thaler
This specimen was lot 3043 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €220 (about US$284 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Franz Anton von Harrach, 1709-1727. 1/2 Reichstaler 1709. Glatter Rand. R Hübsche Patina, vorzüglich. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Francis Anthony of Harrach, 1709-27, half thaler of 1709. Plain edge, rare, nice patina, extremely fine.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type was struck 1709 only. Franz Anton was the first archbishop in several generations to place his portrait on the coinage. This one, however, is the traditional half thaler with the SS. Rupert and Virgil on the reverse. Bust and St. Rupert half thalers are both quite scarce and are priced higher than the thalers. 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 14.44 g.
Catalog reference: KM unlisted, Probszt 2018; Zöttl 2430 (Type 1).
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- 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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