Swabian Circle 1737-FB ducat Fr-3371
This specimen was lot 5250 in Künker sale 354 (Osnabruck, Germany, September 2021), where it sold for €6,500 (about US$9,046 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"SCHWÄBISCHER KREIS, Dukat 1737, Stuttgart. GOLD. RR Kl. Belagreste, fast vorzüglich. (Germany, Swabian Circle, ducat of 1737, Stuttgart mint. Very rare, slightly pitted, about extremely fine.)"
This rare ducat was struck by the duke of Wurttemberg for the Swabian Circle, an administrative division of the Holy Roman Empire that roughly corresponds to the modern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg. Besides the regional powers of Baden and Wurttemberg, it also included the Austrian Breisgau, Hohenzollern, Furstenburg and a mess of free cities and petty lordships.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 3.50 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 3.47 g.
Catalog reference: KM 5, Fr-3371; Klein/Raff 225.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- 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.
- [1]Künker Münzauktionen und Goldhandel, Catalog 335: Bracteates from Upper Swabia and the area of the Lake Constance | Coins and Medals from Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. the Dr. Karl Walter Bach Collection of coins of the Austrian nobility, Special collections of Bavaria, Lubeck, Wurttemberg as well as siege coins from the Eberhard Link Collection. Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2020.
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