Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1560 until his death in 1586, but the Thaler series attributed to him spans only 1561–1567 — a window that coincides with the height of tensions between the Habsburgs and the Protestant estates of the Holy Roman Empire. Salzburg's silver came from the mines of the Gastein valley, which by the mid-sixteenth century had been producing coin metal for the archbishopric for over a century, making the mint at Salzburg one of the more self-sufficient ecclesiastical operations in the German lands.
The Davenport reference places this squarely within the broader thalers of the period catalogued under Early Continental coinage, while Zöttl's range of six die variants across those six years suggests fairly consistent annual production rather than a concentrated single issue.
Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1560 until his death in 1586, but the Thaler series attributed to him spans only 1561–1567 — a window that coincides with the height of tensions between the Habsburgs and the Protestant estates of the Holy Roman Empire. Salzburg's silver came from the mines of the Gastein valley, which by the mid-sixteenth century had been producing coin metal for the archbishopric for over a century, making the mint at Salzburg one of the more self-sufficient ecclesiastical operations in the German lands.
The Davenport reference places this squarely within the broader thalers of the period catalogued under Early Continental coinage, while Zöttl's range of six die variants across those six years suggests fairly consistent annual production rather than a concentrated single issue.