1 Thaler Austria Silver

1677, Salzburg, Maximilian Gandolph von Kuenburg. Silver Thaler Coin.

Mint Year: 1677
Mint Place: Salzburg
Denomination: Thaler
Reference: Davenport 3508, KM-190.
Ruler (Archibishop): Maximilian Gandolph
Diameter: 42.6mm
Weight: 28.02gm
Material: Silver

Obverse: Saint Rupert, wearing episcopal regalia, holding crozier and salt barrel. All within wreath border, arms of Salzburg below.
Legend: SANCT • RVDBERT VS • EPS : SALISB : 1677

Reverse:Madonna with Child and staff. Count Paris von Lodron´s arms (Lion), topped by Archibishop´s hat above cross below.
Inner Legend: SIDIVM . CONF VG . - SVB . TVVM . PRAE
Legend: MAX : GAND : D : G: - AR : EP : SAL : SE : AP : L .

St. Rupert was the first abbot of Salzburg, from 696 to his death in 718. He is variously considered to be Frankish or Irish, but developed a reputation for holiness while preaching in Worms. Theodo, Duke of Bavaria, sent a request to Rupert to come to Bavaria to instruct him in the faith. Rupert accepted, and baptized Theodo and his entire entourage in the town of Regensburg, where the Duke had traveled in his excitement to meet Rupert.

In the following years, under the patronage of Theodo and his son Theodobert, Rupert spread the Gospel message throughout Bavaria, and suceeded in converting or re-converting whole regions. Rupert asked Theodo for the right to build a church among the ruins of the ancient Roman town of Juvavia. This Theodo granted, and Rupert founded St. Peter’s Church and Abbey and the Nonnburg convent, the oldest continuing monastery and convent in the German-speaking world. Around the Benedictine monks and nuns who accepted Rupert’s call grew the town of Salzburg. To this day, September 24 is marked throughout Austria with a St. Rupert’s Day country fair, Ruperti Kirtag.

Maximilian Gandolph von Kuenburg, was born in 1622 of an old noble family in Ganz, Styria and was elected as Archbishop of Salzburg in 1668. Even in the beginning of Archbishop Max Gandolph’s rule, other problems took precedence. In 1669, 62 Dürrnberger mine workers drowned in salt.

On July 16, 1669, a landslide k!lled 200 people. Gandolph’s reign was not free from war worries either: France occupied Lorraine in 1670, and raised territorial claims to which Gandolph responded with a contingent under Major von Freysing. A Turkish danger threatened Vienna in the year 1683. Lastly, the infamous Black Jacket witch trials, where 200 people had been tortured and k!lled at the behest of Gandolph, had just ended.

Therefore, after around 1683, Gandolph had more time to devote to the issue of religious dissent, and he did not like dissent. He was, above all else, an administrator with a taste for regulation and rules. Under his reign, new regulations were issued in abundance and included, among other things, new police regulations, fire prevention orders, safety ordinances, firearms laws, loitering regulations, an alms order of 1678 which included a ‘beggar land registry’, a cleanliness order for the roads and disease protection regulations in 1679. A cleanliness order for religion was next.