1 Ducat

Cologne struck these ducats during some of the most destructive years of the Thirty Years' War, when the Rhine corridor was repeatedly contested by Swedish, Imperial, and Spanish forces. As a Free Imperial City, Cologne maintained a jealously guarded right to mint gold — a privilege it exercised with particular urgency during the 1630s, when currency debasement by warring parties made reliable gold coinage from a stable civic issuer genuinely valuable across the region.

The Noss reference spans six die pairings across this short window, suggesting sustained if not heavy production. Fr#766 ties this issue into the broader ducat weight standard then common across the Holy Roman Empire.