The Salzburg Coin Collection at the British Museum

 On May 5th 2017, the Salzburg Numismatic Society visited the coin department of the British Museum in London. Crowning a long period of preparations, the eight members of the SNS were able to examine and hold in hands not only the roughly 450 Salzburg coins in the Museum’s possession, but also many of the most eminent Greek coins known to numismatics.

This trip was enabled by the kind intercession of Stephen, an influential British collector.

In his two-volume work “Die Münzen und Medaillen des Erzstifts Salzburg“, published in Munich in 1928 and 1931, Karl Roll lists about 90 gold and silver coins in possession of the BM. Among these coins, he lists one Rübentaler from 1504, of which no more than 12 exist worldwide.  

To state it right away: We were able to find all of Roll´s listed coins except for the Rübentaler. It appears likely that it went missing during the German bombardment in May 1941, which resulted in the coin department burning down. During the war, many eminent objects were transported into safety, and the Rübentaler counted among the rarest and most expensive coins even then.

Notwithstanding this notable absence, the British Museum´s Salzburg collection remains impressive.

Among the medieval coins are two Laufener broad pennies (CNA A32) with rests of letters.

The ducats and double ducats are almost all in excellent condition, the pieces from the 18^th century mostly

 mintstate. All in all, most of the coins are in extrafine or better condition.  

Of multiple ducats, the collection contains:

 

British Museum, object number 1851,0510.3, Lizenz: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-sa/4.0/

4 Dukatenklippe 1522, 13,94 Gr.,

A larger series of Doppeldukaten from Johann Jakob Kuen Belasi

Doppeldukatenklippe from Wolf Dietrich with the two saints, BR.1581

6 Dukaten 1593 vom Turmtalerstempel, 20,95 Gr.,

4 Dukat 1655 Salvatorstatue, BR.2957

5 Dukat 1668, 17,33 Gr., BR. 3168

8 Dukat 1668, 27,8 Gr., BR.3162

4 Dukat 1687

Doppeldukat 1688

12 Dukatenmedaille 1753, 41,77 Gr., BR.4148

 Among the silver coins, the well-known rarities from Matheus Lang and Wolf Dietrich of Raitenau can be found, which counted among the most desirable European coins even in the 19^th century.

Halbguldiner 1535 Kursmünze, 14,49 Gr., BR. 650

Halbguldiner 1539 AGNOSCE TE DILIGENTES, 13,30 Gr., BR. 654

Halbguldiner 1539 mit den 2 Heiligen 13,19 Gr., BR. 655

Doppelguldiner 1538 RADIANA, 52,62 Gr., BR. 563

2/3 Turmtaler 1594, 17,71 Gr., BR. 1536

Turmtaler 1594, 28,89 Gr., BR. 1544

 In relation to smaller coins, three pennies from Guidobald Graf Thun (1660, 1664 and 1665), all in mint condition, catch the eye. The pennies from Guidobald count among the rarest Salzburg small coins.

This short overview was not the only result of the journey, however. The Salzburg Numismatic Society donated to the digitization of the entire inventory of Salzburg coins. They all will be available online in the BM’s data archive in the next few months!