1/4 Ducat

Regensburg occupied a peculiar position in the Holy Roman Empire — technically a free imperial city, yet home to the Immerwährender Reichstag, the perpetual imperial diet that sat in continuous session from 1663 until Napoleon dissolved the Empire in 1806. The city's right to strike its own coinage was a jealously guarded privilege, and these small gold fractions were produced across the reigns of both Joseph I and Charles VI, their date range straddling the dynastic break of 1711.

At under a gram of near-pure gold, these pieces circulated among a merchant class conducting the petty transactions of a city permanently crowded with imperial delegates and their retinues.