Strasbourg (1650) ducat Fr-237
The first specimen was lot 29883 in Heritage sale 3040 (Chicago, April 2015), where it sold for $2,820. The catalog description[1] noted, "Strassburg. Bishopric gold Ducat ND (1650) MS64 NGC. A one-year type with helmeted arms and lion supporters, fully-lustrous fields and impeccably styled design elements." At the time, the town was a free city in the Holy Roman Empire. Wikipedia comments,
"The Free City of Strasbourg remained neutral during the Thirty Years' War. In September 1681 it was annexed by King Louis XIV of France, whose unprovoked annexation was recognized by the Treaty of Ryswick (1697). The official policy of religious intolerance which drove many Protestants from France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1598) by the Edict of Fontainebleau (1685) was not applied in Strasbourg and in Alsace. Strasbourg Cathedral, however, was restored from the Lutherans to the Catholics. The German Lutheran university persisted until the French Revolution. Famous students were Goethe and Herder."
The second specimen was lot 1219 in Künker sale 352 (Osnabrück, Germany, September 2021), where it sold for €1,200 (about US$1,670 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[2] noted,
"FRANKREICH/ELSASS, STRASSBURG, STADT, Dukat o. J. (1650). R Etwas gewellt, sehr schön-vorzüglich. (Alsace, city of Strasbourg, undated ducat. Rare, bent, very fine to extremely fine.)"
Recorded mintage: unknown but scarce.
Specification: 3.5 g, 0.986 fine gold, the second specimen 3.45 g.
Catalog reference: KM 424, Fr-237; Engel/Lehr 489.
- Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1601-1700, 6th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2014.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- [1]Bierrenbach, Cristiano, Warren Tucker and David Michaels, Heritage Signature Auction 3040, featuring the Santa Maria, the Alan Dean and the Valley View Life Collections, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2015.
- [2]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Künker Auktion 352: Die Sammlung Hermann Schwarz: Faszination des gepragten Goldes. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2021.
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