http://coins.ha.com/itm/brunswick-w.../p/3048-54061.s?ic4=ListView-Thumbnail-071515 Wow, this is the one I want (and so far out of my price range, even if I sold my entire collection). Anyone have an educated guess how much this might go for?
That's a monster of a coin at 88mm diameter! I'd put in a guess of $20,000 - $40,000, but really have no idea. Heritage will probably post an auction estimate soon enough.
It's easy to have spectacular engraving when you're engraving a dinner-plate sized die! @Zohar444 , do you know how the heck they even "struck" this size of Thaler back in 1614? Are these rolled? Also, while nominally given a value of 5 Thalers, I can't imagine these were minted in quantity and actually used for transactions. Are these more of a "presentation piece" coin?
Sorry, to ask my other question again -- are these roller press minted in 1614? I can't imagine a screw press being used at 88mm, or maybe a drop press...any idea?
I really don't know... my guess, roller given the technology available - http://www.tiroler-numismatik.at/index.php?id=50 "The new minting technique basically consisted of a system of wooden gearwheels powered by a waterwheel, causing to rotate two steel rollers whereon the coinage dies were engraved. On every roller either four wide double Thalers, five Thalers, six semi-Thalers or 7 quarter Thalers could be engraved. Depressions between the dies made sure that slipping through of the Zain, as the silver bullion was called,be avoided. With a good set of rollers about 50,000 marks (= approx. 14 t) could be minted, in extreme cases up to 100,000 marks (= approx. 28 t)."
Cool, thanks for the link @Zohar444 . I knew that screw presses were around by the 1550s, but Hall (and other "Germanic" mints tended to do it a little differently).
You have to be careful with some of the smaller multiple Taler issues, because often times they were struck with the 1 Taler dies on a thicker 2 Taler flan. There were multiples up to at least 4 Taler for some issues, that were struck this way. I recently encountered a German States Taler that the grading service had labeled as 2 Taler, and while the diameter was right, the coin was unmistakably too light to be a 2 Taler, and this was obvious even by just holding the slab in hand. A very serious misattribution since the Taler denomination was worth barely an 1/8th of what the heavier 2 Taler would have been worth.
