1/4 Ducat - Francis Maximilian

The Mansfeld counties were carved up repeatedly among competing lines of the family throughout the seventeenth century, and by 1671 Mansfeld-Bornstedt was one of several fragmented successor territories issuing their own coinage under Imperial privilege. Francis Maximilian held the county during its twilight — Bornstedt passed out of Mansfeld family hands within a generation. Quarter ducats of this type saw extremely limited production, and Tornau's numbering of this piece as a variety suffix "a" suggests at least one obverse or reverse die variant was documented within what was already a small run.