2019-05-24 Fri

Fritz Rudolf Kunker is going to offer a 1623 silver reichstaler on 25th June in Hesse, Germany. It belongs to a collection of coins from Solms, put together by Gunter Westphal, who died at the age of 88 in 2017. Solms is a county in Hesse which was partitioned several times due to the lack of primogeniture arrangements. Experts believe that coins from Solms are rare and such a big collection has not been seen in the market.

The coin was struck by the Bernardian family. The family did not have the right to strike coins. However, during the Kipper und Wipper financial crisis period, the family joined the coin business. They claimed that the coins were struck using silver from Hungen mines, to assure that their coins were legitimate. However, there were no mountains or mines in Hungen. The Imperial High Court indicated the ones who were responsible for minting the coins and their production came to a standstill. The coin is graded Very Fine to Extremely Fine by the auction house and is being offered at an estimated value of €7,500.

The “Kipper und Wipperzeit” financial crisis began before the Thirty Years’ War (1618 to 1648). In 1621, city-states from the Holy Roman Empire started striking heavily debased coins to fund the war. A large number of debased coins were produced, but their value kept on decreasing. Some of these coins were not even legitimate, like the one offered in the auction.

Image Courtesy: Fritz Rudolf Kunker