Königstein was a small imperial county in the Taunus, and by the 1560s it was deep in dynastic difficulty. Louis II ruled as the last of his line; the county would pass to the Eppstein-Stolberg family upon his death, ending direct Königstein comital authority entirely. These double thalers were struck across a three-year window that coincides almost exactly with the final negotiations over succession — coins minted, in effect, by a lordship already aware it was running out of time.
The Davenport reference places this among the rarer German territorial double thalers of the period, and surviving examples are seldom encountered outside major auction appearances.
Königstein was a small imperial county in the Taunus, and by the 1560s it was deep in dynastic difficulty. Louis II ruled as the last of his line; the county would pass to the Eppstein-Stolberg family upon his death, ending direct Königstein comital authority entirely. These double thalers were struck across a three-year window that coincides almost exactly with the final negotiations over succession — coins minted, in effect, by a lordship already aware it was running out of time.
The Davenport reference places this among the rarer German territorial double thalers of the period, and surviving examples are seldom encountered outside major auction appearances.