Saxony 1507 1/4 guldengroschen KM-MB90
This specimen was lot 5850 in Künker sale 354 (Osnabrück, Germany, September 2021), where it sold for €4,000 (about US$5,567 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"SACHSEN, KURFÜRSTENTUM, Friedrich III. der Weise, 1486-1525. 1/4 Guldengroschen 1507, Nürnberg, mit Titel Maximilians I. RR Hübsche Patina, kl. Schrötlingsriß am Rand, sehr schön +. (Germany, electorate of Saxony, Frederick the Wise, 1486-1525, quarter guldengroschen of 1507, Nuremberg mint, struck in the name of Maximilian I. Very rare, handsome patina, edge defects, very fine or better.)"
In the sixteenth century, the guldengroschen and the thaler were both worth sixty kreuzer. By 1600, the thaler had risen to 72 kreuzer, then 90 kreuzer, then 120 kreuzer in the eighteenth century while the gulden remained fixed at sixty kreuzer. The Ernestine line of Saxon dukes was the senior branch and held the electoral cap until the capture of Johann Friedrich in 1547, when the emperor confiscated it and awarded it to the Albertine line. Thereafter, the Thuringian state splintered into the Saxon duchies. This type was struck for the Ernestine line 1507, 1510 and 1512 along with KM MB91 (no portrait).
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 7,19 g.
Catalog reference: KM MB 90, Keilitz 73.
- Nicol, N. Douglas, Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of German Coins, 1501-Present, 3rd ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2011.
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Künker Auktion 354: Munzen und Medaillen aus Mittelalter und Neuzeit u. a. Braunschweig-Luneburg. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2021.
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