1 Thaler - Charles Albert Vicariat

Charles Albert of Bavaria struck these thalers during his brief tenure as Imperial Vicar following the death of Emperor Charles VI in October 1740 — a constitutional interregnum during which the Wittelsbach elector exercised quasi-imperial authority in the absence of a crowned successor. It was a moment of calculated self-promotion: Charles Albert had dynastic ambitions of his own and would press his claim to the Habsburg inheritance, eventually securing election as Emperor Charles VII in 1742. The vicariat coinage was part of that political theater.

The two Davenport varieties (1946 and 1946A) reflect die differences documented in the German Thaler series, likely attributable to the Munich mint working through multiple working dies during what was a politically urgent — and therefore hurried — production run.