1/2 Groat - Sigismund II Augustus Tykocin mint

Tykocin — a town in Podlachia rather than the Lithuanian heartland — served as a royal mint for only a brief window in the 1560s, operating under the direct patronage of Sigismund II Augustus who maintained a residence and treasury there. Its output is modest by volume, which partly explains why Kopicki records two separate catalog entries for this single type: die variation between issues from short-lived provincial operations was common, and Kopicki treated them conservatively rather than collapsing ambiguous varieties.

The 1566 date falls just ahead of the Union of Lublin, when the Grand Duchy's administrative and monetary arrangements were still nominally distinct from the Polish Crown.