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 Replies: 8 / Views: 1,321 |
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Valued Member
United States
217 Posts |
This post is again inspired by Zohar's witeups on the history of the pieces in his collection. I won this lot in the recent Heritage auction. The taler is a 1 year strike issued to commemorate the death of Heinrich VIII of Fulda, the Prince-Bishop of Fulda from 1759 to 1788. These pieces are often called Sede Vacante issues, as they literally mark the "empty seat" of the bishop. Fulda is a city in central Germany located in the state of Hesse. The city dates to 744, when it was founded by a disciple of Saint Boniface as a base for missionaries to help Charlemagne's armies destroy the Saxony tribes. Saint Boniface is considered to be the 'Apostle to the Germans'.   Heinrich VIII of Fulda  Fulda's cathedral:  |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1429 Posts |
Brent, I am glad you won such a fabulous piece. I tried bidding and it seemed that the prices kept on going up. Well done.
Your collecting taste is exquisite. This one has a touch of the Salzburg Taler coinage only much more detail on the design. Keep'em coming.
Regards,
Zohar
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Valued Member
 United States
217 Posts |
Thanks Zohar. I was the only bidder so it was 30-35% below where I expected it to hammer. Either everybody else knows something that I dont know, or the state of the economy is impacting the auction houses (which I suspect), or I am just simply pursuing talers that nobody else finds interesting. Whatever the case, I will continue on my merry way. Some other taler lots from the Grundy collection brough nice premiums.
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
Fantastic coin, love the detail with all the shields.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1415 Posts |
WHOA!  Nice looking coin. They just don't make them like that anymore |
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Valued Member
United States
365 Posts |
Wow-- thanks for posting the pics and the background to this coin. A truly awesome piece, congrats! I, like others I think, especially admire the attractive reverse with the coats of arms!
-SC
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Valued Member
United States
217 Posts |
Thanks for the nice comments! The coat of arms is a common theme on these sede vacante talers. I am a huge fan of the intricate die work that never ceases to amaze me, and I find it hard to believe the artistry and craftsmanship that went into the dies at this period in time.
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Valued Member
United States
365 Posts |
Very true, the craftsmanship on these is phenomenal. I was recently back in a museum in Zurich, Switzerland that happened to have a nice display of early coinage from different regions that now make up that country (both pre-cantonal and cantonal) and, given the means on hand at the time the pieces were made the work is often exquisite. On many of the types of large silver coins like the one you've posted here one can really see the spillover of artistic and architectural ideas and styles.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1429 Posts |
Brent,
I looked at it again, excellent piece!
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Replies: 8 / Views: 1,321 |
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Posted 01/11/2009 9:48 pm
