Frankfurt struck ducats continuously as a free imperial city, but the 1644–45 issues fall directly within the closing years of the Thirty Years' War — a conflict that had devastated the German states for nearly three decades and turned Frankfurt's trade fairs into shadows of their former selves. The city's mint remained active throughout, partly because Frankfurt's status as a neutral commercial hub made its coinage acceptable across fractured territorial lines.
The Junius-Fischer reference distinguishes this as the 445b variety, implying at least one die variant within the same emission year.
Frankfurt struck ducats continuously as a free imperial city, but the 1644–45 issues fall directly within the closing years of the Thirty Years' War — a conflict that had devastated the German states for nearly three decades and turned Frankfurt's trade fairs into shadows of their former selves. The city's mint remained active throughout, partly because Frankfurt's status as a neutral commercial hub made its coinage acceptable across fractured territorial lines.
The Junius-Fischer reference distinguishes this as the 445b variety, implying at least one die variant within the same emission year.