The Bishopric of Gurk was a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire, but by 1806 that empire had ceased to exist — dissolved by Napoleon's pressure in August of that year. Franz Xaver von Salm-Salm, appointed to Gurk in 1783, continued issuing coinage into this constitutional vacuum, making 1806 one of the final years any Gurk bishop struck money under even nominal imperial authority. The issue is rare in any grade; Gurk's output was never large, and the political disruption that followed secularization cut production sharply.
The Bishopric of Gurk was a prince-bishopric of the Holy Roman Empire, but by 1806 that empire had ceased to exist — dissolved by Napoleon's pressure in August of that year. Franz Xaver von Salm-Salm, appointed to Gurk in 1783, continued issuing coinage into this constitutional vacuum, making 1806 one of the final years any Gurk bishop struck money under even nominal imperial authority. The issue is rare in any grade; Gurk's output was never large, and the political disruption that followed secularization cut production sharply.