1071197 | GERMAN STATES. Cologne. Josef Clemens (Joseph Klemens Herzog von Bayern, 1688-1723). 1700 AR Medal. PCGS MS63. 31mm. 8.11gm. Crowned monogram within wreath; legend around / Fourteen-line inscription. Weiler 1504.

For the inauguration of the Castle Chapel Bonn, July 18th 1700.

Ex Wolff-Metternich Collection.


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Wolff-Metternich zur Gracht is the name of a Rhenish and Westphalian noble family descended from the North Hessian Lords of Wolff von Gudenberg. Founders of the family name first appear in records from the early 13th Century. Notable members of the family were accomplished diplomats whose services for the Electors of Köln and Bavaria, were well-rewarded with land grants and rights to income derived from the collection of taxes and duties. Other descendants held the title of Prince-Bishop of Paderborn and were succeeded by other generations throughout the 17th and 18th Centuries. Coins and medals of the Wolff-Metternich Prince-Bishops, and related issues, formed much of the family's numismatic holdings. Sometime around 1800 an unidentified family member added significantly to the collection. For some four centuries, the family’s headquarters, situated in the moated palace of Schloss Gracht in Erftstadt-Liblar near Cologne (Köln), Germany, is also where the coin and medals collection was kept, until 1957 when the property was sold. It is believed that the collection remained unresearched and was unknown to numismatists until the present time.