3 Thalers - Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi End of the Plague

Johann Jakob Khuen von Belasi served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1560 to 1586, and the plague that this triple thaler commemorates struck the region with particular severity in the early 1570s. Votive and commemorative issues marking the end of epidemic disease were not uncommon in German-speaking territories, but a triple thaler — essentially a presentation piece by weight and cost — signals this was intended for distribution among the political and ecclesiastical elite, not general circulation.

Surviving examples are rarely found worn.