Schlick (15)27 thaler Dav-8148
This specimen was lot 418 in Künker sale 400 (Berlin, February 2024), where it sold for €7,500 (about US$9,730 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"DIE ÖSTERREICHISCHEN STANDESHERREN, SCHLICK, GRAFSCHAFT, Stephan, Burian, Heinrich, Hieronymus und Lorenz, 1505-1532. Taler 1527, Joachimstal, mit Titel Ferdinands I. Feine Patina, fast vorzüglich (Austrian states, county of Schlick, Stephan, Burian, Henry, Hieronymus und Laurence, 1505-32, thaler of 1527, Joachimsthal mint, struck in the name of Ferdinand I. Fine patina, about extremely fine.)"
In the mid-fifteenth century, large deposits of silver were discovered in the Alps and Carpathian mountains. At the same time, the screw press, originally invented to crush grapes, was adapted to minting, enabling the production of large coins. Thus the guldiner (later called the thaler) was born. The counts of Schlick were the original proprietors of the mint at Joachimsthal, where the first "thalers" were struck. Schlick, in Bohemia, was not incorporated into the Hapsburg dominions until 1526.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver, this specimen 29,13 g.
Catalog reference: KM unlisted, Dav-8148; Donebauer 3781 var.
- Craig, William D., Germanic Coinages: Charlemagne through Wilhelm II, Mountain View, CA: 1954.
- Davenport, John S., European Crowns, 1484-1600, Frankfurt: Numismatischer Verlag, 1977.
- [1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Katalog 400: Selected löser of the Dukes of Guelph from the Friedrich Popken Collection | Numismatic treasures from the Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. "multiple portraits" from a Westphalian private collection, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2024.
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