Salzburg 1739-FMK thaler Dav-1242
This specimen was lot 3081 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,800 (about US$2,326 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"Leopold Anton Eleutherius von Firmian, 1727-1744. Reichstaler 1739. R Prachtexemplar. Herrliche Patina, vorzüglich-Stempelglanz. Exemplar der Auktion H. D. Rauch 25, Wien 1979, Nr. 2022. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Leopold Anton Eleutherius von Firmian, 1727-44, thaler of 1739. Rare, outstanding example, superb patina, extremely fine to uncirculated.)"
The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type was struck 1738-44. It is priced 2½ times the St. Rupert thaler (Dav-1241). 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 29.12 g.
Catalog reference: KM 338, Dav-1242; Probszt 2134; Zöttl 2576 (Type 2).
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Davenport, John S., European Crowns, 1700-1800, 2nd Ed., London: Spink & Son, 1964.
- 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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