Lippe-Detmold 1767-BS ducat Fr-1456

Künker sale 400, lot 165

This specimen was lot 165 in Künker sale 400 (Berlin, February 2024), where it sold for €18,000 (about US$23,352 including buyer's fees). The catalog description^[1] noted,

"LIPPE, GRAFSCHAFT, Simon August, 1734-1782. Dukat 1767, Detmold, auf die Geburt des Erbprinsen Friedrich Wilhelm Leopold am 2. Dezember. Münzmeister Bandel Stürmer. SIM . AUG . COM . & NOB . D . LIPP . S . D . V . & A . B . H . ULTR . * Kopf r. mit Perücke//SERVA . IEHIVA . NATUM : 2 . DEC : 1707 . Gekröntes vierfeldiges Wappen mit aufgelegtem vierfeldigen Mittelschild in von Lorbeer- und Palmzweig geschmückten Kartusche, unten Münzmeisterzeichen B - S. GOLD. Von größter Seltenheit. Winz. Kratzer, vorzüglich-Stempelglanz. (Germany, county of Lippe-Detmold, Simon Augustus, 1734-82, ducat of 1767, Detmold mint, on the birth of crown prince Frederick William Leopold on December 2. Obverse: peruked head right; reverse: helmeted and quartered arms with escutcheon in cartouche decorated with laurel and palm branches, initials below. Extremely rare, minor scratches, extremely fine to uncirculated.)"

This rare type is one of a suite of coins the count had struck in 1767, ranging from a pfennig thru a thaler. Lippe-Detmold's army allegedly comprised the count, one colonel and one private. The state's weakness--nobody else wanted it--probably enabled its survival until 1918.

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 3.5 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 3,46 g.

Catalog reference: KM 195, Slg. Weweler 708; Ihl/Schwede 520 A/a; Fr-1456.

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.
• Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
• ^[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.

Link to:

• 1765-BS 1/6 thaler
• 1765-BS ⅔ thaler, armored bust
• 1767 thaler, for the count's 40th birthday
• 1772-HDS 1/3 thaler
• Coins and currency dated 1767