Trier 1679 4 pfennig KM-126
This specimen was lot 32274 in Stack's Bowers Collector's Choice sale (Costa Mesa, CA, May 2024), where it sold for $65. The catalog description[1] noted, "GERMANY. Trier. 4 Pfennig, 1679. Trier Mint. Johann Hugo von Orsbeck. NGC AU-55. A good deal of silvering remains on this billon issue, displaying little evidence of time in circulation." The archbishopric of Trier was an ecclesiastical state on the Moselle, upriver of Coblenz. Once an important trade center, the reason the archbishopric was sited there, the city was badly damaged during the Thirty Years War and never recovered. Most of its coinage is rare but the four pfennig or half albus was struck throughout the century and is fairly common. This type was struck 1677-80 and was accompanied by a four pfennig with St. Peter on the reverse (KM 138). Trier was seized by France in 1794 and fell to Prussia at the Congress of Vienna.
Recorded mintage: unknown but not expensive.
Specification: copper.
Catalog reference: KM-126.
- 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]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, May 2024 World Collectors Choice Online Auction, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers Galleries, Inc., 2024.
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