3 Kreuzer Salzburg Silver

Mint Year: 1681 Reference: KM-228. Denomination: 3 Kreuzer (Grossus) Diameter: 21mm Weight: 1.53gm Material: Silver

Obverse: Nimbate figure of Saint Rupert standing facing, holding crozier in left hand and salt barrel in right. Legend: S : RUDBERTVS . EPS : SALISB :

Reverse: Date (1681) above shields with arms of the City and of the Archibishop. Denomination value (3) below. Legend: MAX : GAND : D : G : ARCHIEP : SALISB : x

Maximilian Gandolph, 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 killed 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 killed 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 zest 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.