Treaty of Passarowitz (Požarevac)

CNG 111, Lot: 997. Estimate $300. Sold for $575. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

AUSTRIA, Holy Roman Empire. Karl VI. Emperor, 1711-1740. AR Medal (44mm, 27.21 g, 12h). On the Treaty of Passarowitz (Požarevac). By Vertner. Dated 1718 (in chronogram). CAROLVS VI · D · G · ROM · IMP · SEMP · AVG ·, laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust right; small V below / PARCET SVBMISSIS DEBELLABITQVE SVPERBOS. (adapted from Aeneid 6.853), eagle flying left above countryside; INDVCIAE CVM TVRCIS ·/D. 21. IVLII. in two lines in exergue. Julius 1325; Montenuovo 1528. EF, attractive iridescent toning. Rare.

From the RAJ Collection. Ex World-Wide Coins of California (James F. Elmen) XIX (13 June 1991), lot 7.

SELECTIONS FROM THE THE RAJ COLLECTION OF MEDALS

A number of simultaneous conflicts occurred during the early eighteenth century in Europe as various nation-states vied with one another for control of territories and right-of-ways. Some of these conflicts were part of a long-standing period of expansion, as was the case with the Ottoman Empire’s push into Europe, while others, most notably, the war between Sweden and Russia, were between expanding states bumping up against each other. CNG is pleased to present a selection of medals from the RAJ Collection covering this tumultuous period, when grand alliances shifted back-and-forth, and grand coalitions sided on opposite ends of the battlefield. Among this selection, the medals associated with the Great Northern War (1700-1721) are especially interesting, since this conflict pitted the Swedish Empire against Tsarist Russia, for supremacy in northern, central, and eastern Europe.

The Treaty of Passarowitz (Požarevac), signed on 21 July 1718 between the Ottoman Empire and the allied forces of Austria and the Venetian Republic, resulted in the loss of Venetian influence in the Peloponnesus and the Aegean, and in the restoration of Austrian control over those sections of Serbia that they had lost to the Ottomans during the Great Turkish War (1683-1699). This control, however, did not last long, since the Ottomans regained these Austrian-held territories as a result of the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739.