1683 Battle of Vienna Show Taler

rawmorgan

This was a Heritage win in 2013, the images are from the auction.




I haven't posted this on the forums until now.








It still remains raw.




Enjoy.

rawmorgan

Anyone have an idea on number of survivors for this run, and also if anyone could point me toward a source for a translation of the reverse I would appreciate it. I know the showtaler was minted to commemorate the victory of John III Sobieski, King of Poland, over the Ottoman army; breaking the siege of Vienna.

JCMhouston

Very cool piece.

harasha

Ooo,boy!

worldcoinguy

That is a nice piece with crisp detail on the obverse in particular. I even like the off center planchet strike - lends more uniqueness and authenticity to it.



Per auction records, the reverse has a 21 line legend describing how the Polish King John III Sobieski, with 20,000 troops, relieved the Turkish siege of Vienna in 1683 and drove them back to the Raab, and thereby freed Hungary. By leading the decisive Polish cavalry charge himself, Sobieski was acclaimed the hero of Christendom.



Surviving numbers is the $64,000 question. You can look first to population reports in NGC and PCGS for a general feel about scarcity, but the frequency that it is seen in European auctions is a better measuring stick against which to benchmark population. You can try http://www.acsearch.info and do a few iterations of search criteria. I see at least 20 have gone through auction houses in recent years.



The interesting thing about this piece is that I do not see a Davenport number for it.

STLNATS

Great piece! The die cracks and slight off center strike add to lot of additional interest, at least for me.



This was a big news item in the day, and there was a writeup here of a papal Piastre of Innocent XI a few weeks ago that commemorated the same event. There are several other items related to the raising of the siege, including papal medals, and your show taler could be the centerpiece of an interesting collection.



Thanks for sharing.

rawmorgan

Thank you all very much for comments, this is a very special piece for me.

And I'm glad I was able to become the custodian of this piece.

Zohar

This is the one that got away for me. I really should have pursued stronger



Goldberg's

Swampboy

Awesome piece. Congrats.

I'll be checking back to see if any member can offer a translation.

EVillageProwler

Great piece, great history.



Btw, show talers do not have Dav numbers because they're more like medallions than currency.

pmac

Great die breaks, action, symbolism, detail and so on. It looks like someone loved it too much and tried to make it look better. This is one reason that I can enjoy loved (cleaned) coins - all my reasons for owning a coin are there. Generally they are much cheaper (like me), but difficult to pass onto other collectors.