Owner Comments:
Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. Rudolf August and Anton Ulrich Taler 1689-RB AU58 NGC, Zellerfeld mint, Rudolf Bornemann as mintmaster, KM572.2, Dav-6393. An example of this Wildmen type that is exquisitely struck and deeply toned. The circulation wear is almost non existent on this example and may be more attributable to cabinet friction. The surfaces have a wholly original appearance.
Much more darkly toned than pictures show but with lots of flash underneath.
From the Cape Coral Collection of Multiple Talers
Obverse: Large shield with scalloped base
Obverse Legend: W/V's
Reverse: 2 Wildmen with Twisted trees
Composition: Silver
Heritage - 2016 August 11 ANA World Coins & Ancient Coins Signature Auction - Anaheim #3048 lot 29027
Rudolf August was the eldest son of the Duke August the Younger and Dorothea of Anhalt-Zerbst.
In 1666 he succeeded his father as Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel . However, Rudolf August devoted himself more to his studies and hunting. He had laid out an extensive library and had been appointed in 1663 by his father for "Jägermeister". According to regulation by him on December 24th, 1660 he gave the Calvördern free the necessary timber and firewood from the Calvörder forestry.
In 1667 a year after he took office he appointed his younger power-conscious brother Anton Ulrich to be governor . Rudolf August withdrew more and more from the government stores which he left to his brother. In 1685 he appointed Anton Ulrich Duke and equal co-regent .
In 1650 he married Countess Christiane Elisabeth von Barby. The couple had three daughters, one of which died before their first birthday. To secure the family Succession agreed the Dukes in 1681 to the marriage of Rudolf August's daughter Christine Sophie with her cousin August Wilhelm, the son of Anton Ulrich. August Wilhelm followed therefore in 1714 his father Anton Ulrich, who had in 1704, assumed the supremacy after the death of Rudolf August.
Rudolf August remarried in the same year a few weeks after the death of his first wife Christiane Elisabeth to the eighteen-year-old Rosine Elisabeth Menthe daughter of a barber and surgeon. They had no children.
Rudolf August died on January 26, 1704 at his hunting lodge in Hedwigsburg, south of Wolfenbuttel.