Saxony 1542 1/4 guldengroschen
This specimen was lot 41543 in Stack's Bowers NYINC sale (New York, January 2023), where it sold for $80. The catalog description[1] noted, "GERMANY. Saxony (Ernestine). 1/4 Taler, 1542. Johann Friedrich with Moritz. NGC AU Details--Cleaned." The Ernestine line was the senior branch of Saxon dukes and held the electoral cap until the capture of Johann Friedrich in 1547, when the emperor confiscated it and awarded it to the Albertine line. Thereafter, the Thuringian state splintered into the Saxon duchies. Altho the auctioneers catalogued this as a quarter thaler, it is listed in the SCWC as a quarter guldengroschen. In the first part of the sixteenth century, the thaler and the guldengroschen were the same, both worth sixty kreuzer. At some point in the sixteenth century, the thaler rose to 72 kreuzer while the guldengroschen (soon shortened to just gulden) remained at sixty kreuzer or five-sixths of a thaler. Without the weight, we don't know which this is.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: silver.
Catalog reference: KM MB277.
- Nicol, N. Douglas, Cuhaj, George S., and Thomas Michael, Standard Catalog of German Coins, 1501-Present, 3rd ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2011.
- [1]Orsini, Matt, Kyle Ponterio and Jeremy Bostwick, The January 2023 NYINC Auction: Ancient Coins, World Coins & Paper Money, featuring the Taraszka Collection and the Mark and Dottie Salton Collection, Costa Mesa, CA: Stack's Bowers LLC, 2022.
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