Salzburg 1608 2 ducats Fr-660

Künker sale 384, lot 2684

This specimen was lot 2684 in Künker sale 384 (Osnabrück, March 2023), where it sold for €1,600 (about US$2,068 including buyer's fees). The catalog description^[1] noted,

"Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612. 2 Dukaten 1608. GOLD. Sehr schön-vorzüglich. (archbishopric of Salzburg, Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau, 1587-1612, double ducat of 1608. Very fine to extremely fine.)"

The Archbishopric of Salzburg was an ecclesiastical state between Bavaria and Austria and usually ruled by a Hapsburg client. This type is listed for 1598-1611. The obverse shows the archbishop's arms and St. Rupert seated on the reverse. In the seventeenth century, Salzburg was blessed with a number of productive silver mines and the prince-archbishop was a prolific issuer of coins, particularly thalers. The archbishopric was secularized in 1803 and passed to Austria in 1813.

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 7.00 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 6.96 g.

Catalog reference: Fr-660; Probszt 774; Zöttl 884 (Type 6).

Source:

• 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.
• 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.
• Helmut Zöttl, Salzburg Münzen und Medaillen, 1500-1810, 2 vols. Salzburg: Verlag Fruhwald, 2008.
• ^[1]Künker, Fritz Rudolf, Horst-Rudiger Künker, Ulrich Künker and Andreas Kaiser, Katalog 384: Münzen, Medaillen und Marken von Salzburg - Die Sammlung Professor Dr. Franz Schedel, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2023.

Link to:

• 1607 ⅛ thaler
• 1607 double ducat
• 1609 double ducat
• Coins and currency dated 1608