Austria 1484 1/2 guldiner

Heritage sale 3089, lot 32282

This specimen was lot 32282 in Heritage sale 3089 (Dallas, TX, January 2021), where it sold for $5,040. The catalog description^[1] noted, "Austria. Tyrol. Archduke Sigismund 1/2 Guldiner 1484 VF35 NGC, Hall mint, Obv. Crowned, draped, and armored bust. Rev. Armored knight on horse. Well-struck and strikingly wholesome, with pleasing contrast between the deep gunmetal-gray fields and slate-colored devices. One of the earliest coins displaying a date in Arabic numerals, and not often countered so fine and without significant issues." We don't see any thalers of this design; the closest is the well-known guldiner of 1486 (Dav-8087). At some point early in the sixteenth century, the guldiner split into the thaler (always an ounce of silver) and the gulden (always sixty kreuzer).

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: silver.

Catalog reference: Lev-IV-45a, Frey-261, Voglhuber-2, Moser-Tursky-pg. 27, Fig. 59.

Source:

• Heinz Moser and Heinz Tursky, Die Munzstatte Hall in Tirol, 2 vols. Innsbruck: Verlag Dr Rudolf Erhad, 1981.
• ^[1]Cristiano Bierrenbach, Warren Tucker and Sam Spiegel, Heritage Auction 3089: NYINC World & Ancient Coins Platinum & Signature Auction - Dallas, featuring the Cape Coral Collection of European Crowns and the Penn Collection, Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries, 2020.

Links to:

• Austria 1479 guldiner
• Austria (1482-96) pfundner, Hall mint, archduke Sigismund = 12 kreuzer = 1/5 thaler
• 1486 guldiner, Hall mint, archduke Sigismund
• Coins and currency dated 1484