Schlick 1663-IP 1/4 thaler
This specimen was lot 4888 in Künker sale 335 (Osnabruck, Germany, March 2020), where it sold for €4,800 (about US$6,281 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"RÖMISCH-DEUTSCHES REICH. DIE ÖSTERREICHISCHEN STANDESHERREN, SCHLICK, GRAFEN, Franz Ernst, 1652-1675. 1/4 Reichstaler 1663, Plan, mit Titel Leopolds I. Mit Münzzeichen Stern in Kartusche, zu den Seiten I - P (Johann Pellet von Hundt). Von großer Seltenheit. Hübsche Patina, sehr schön. (Holy Roman Empire, counts of Schlick, Francis Ernest, 1652-75, quarter thaler of 1663, in the name of Leopold I. Very rare, handsome toning, very fine.)"
The SCWC does not listed any quarter thaler resembling this coin, altho a thaler (Dav-3412) is noted for 1663.
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 in Bohemia 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, whereupon the emperor confiscated the mint. This type was struck after the family recovered the mine.
Recorded mintage: unknown but rare.
Specification: silver, this specimen 7,16 g.
Catalog reference: KM unlisted, Donebauer 3841; Smetana/Jakymenková IP13 a.
- 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.
- [1]Künker Münzauktionen und Goldhandel, Catalog 335: Bracteates from Upper Swabia and the area of the Lake Constance | Coins and Medals from Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. the Dr. Karl Walter Bach Collection of coins of the Austrian nobility, Special collections of Bavaria, Lubeck, Wurttemberg as well as siege coins from the Eberhard Link Collection. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2020.
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