The Dietrichstein family reached the peak of their influence under Franz von Dietrichstein, Cardinal-Bishop of Olomouc, who effectively governed Moravia during the Thirty Years' War. By 1664, when Sigismund Helfried struck this thaler, the dynasty held the county of Nikolsburg as an imperial fief and retained the privilege of minting — a right increasingly consolidated by the Habsburgs and rarely extended to lesser houses by that date.
Davenport's European Crown-sized silver catalogues this piece among the thinly documented mid-century Dietrichstein issues, reflecting how irregularly the family exercised their minting rights after mid-century.
The Dietrichstein family reached the peak of their influence under Franz von Dietrichstein, Cardinal-Bishop of Olomouc, who effectively governed Moravia during the Thirty Years' War. By 1664, when Sigismund Helfried struck this thaler, the dynasty held the county of Nikolsburg as an imperial fief and retained the privilege of minting — a right increasingly consolidated by the Habsburgs and rarely extended to lesser houses by that date.
Davenport's European Crown-sized silver catalogues this piece among the thinly documented mid-century Dietrichstein issues, reflecting how irregularly the family exercised their minting rights after mid-century.