Bavaria 1730 carolin Fr-229
This specimen was lot 3940 in Künker sale 406 (Osnabruck, March 2024), where it sold for €1,600 (about US$2,099 including buyer's fees). The catalog description[1] noted,
"BAYERN, HERZOGTUM, SEIT 1623 KURFÜRSTENTUM, Karl Albert, 1726-1745. Karolin 1730, München. GOLD. Vorzüglich. (Germany, electorate of Bavaria, Charles Albert, 1726-45, carolin of 1730, Munich mint. Extremely fine.)"
The eighteenth century saw a fad for absolutist rulers issuing gold coins named after themselves. The most important was the French louis d'or introduced by Louis XIII and issued until the French Revolution in 1789. In Prussia, Frederick the Great minted the friedrichs d'or and Denmark alternated between frederiks d'or and christians d'or depending on who held the throne. In Bavaria, the carolin d'or superseded the maximilian d'or in 1726 but was minted only until 1737 along with half and double carolin d'or. A carolin d'or was ten gulden. An imperial decree of 1736 banned their production by reason of the low fineness of gold.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 9.70 g, 0.770 fine gold, this specimen 9.74 g.
Catalog reference: KM 408, Fr-229; Hahn 258.
- 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 406: Gold Coins | Coins and Medals from the Medieval and Modern Times, a. o. Löwenstein-Wertheim | German Coins after 1871, a. o. Patterns from the Coenen Collection, Osnabrück: Fritz Rudolf Künker GmbH & Co., AG, 2024.
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