1/2 Ducat - Frederick I Edergold Halbdukat

Frederick I of Hesse-Cassel held the remarkable dual position of both Landgrave and, from 1720, King of Sweden through his marriage to Ulrika Eleonora — a dynastic arrangement that made his court one of the more politically complex in the Holy Roman Empire. These half ducats were struck during the middle years of his reign, after Sweden but while he retained full authority in Hesse. The "Edergold" designation is not decorative: it specifically denotes gold refined from the Eder River alloy sources, a regional mining tradition that lent Hessian ducats a documented compositional distinction from contemporary Rhenish issues.