Sale: Triton IX, Lot: 1910. Estimate $3000.  Closing Date: Monday, 9 January 2006.  Sold For $5250. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMANY, Holstein-Gottorp. Karl Peter Ulrich (later Peter III of Russia). 1739-1762. AR Albertus Taler (28.01 g, 12h). Mannheim mint; Anton Schäffer, sculptor. Dated 1753. PETRUS • D : G • MAGNUS DUX TOTIUS RUSSIÆ, draped and cuirassed bust right; S below / HÆR : NORW • DUX SLESV : HOLS : ST & DITM : COM : OLD & DELM • 1753, double-headed imperial eagle with crown above, coat-of-arms Russia and Holstein on wings; small P below. Edge: (rosette) NACH (rosette) DEM (rosette) FUS (rosette) DER • (rosette) ALBERTUS (rosette) Taler. Bitkin 61; Uzdenikov 4929; Severin 1890; Davenport 1353; KM 110. Superb EF, proof-like surfaces, slight adjustment marks. ($3000)

A total of 1043 of these non-circulating Talers was struck for the German merchant Johann Ludwig Ploss of Kiel. Karl Peter was the grandson of Peter the Great through his daughter Anne, married to the Duke of Holstein. The empress Elizabeth designated Karl Peter as her successor, bringing him to St. Petersburg and marrying him to a cousin, Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst in 1745. As Grand Duke of Russia he was to acclimate himself to Russian ways, but in truth, the longer Peter stayed in Russia the more he grew to loath the country, while ironically the German-born Sophia became an avid Russophile and a favorite of the imperial court. After the death of Elizabeth in 1762 Peter III reigned for only six months before being assassinated by a cabal of Russian nobles under Count Orlov and replaced by his wife, ruling as Catherine.