1 Ducat Bicentenary of the Reformation

Rothenburg issued this ducat to mark the 200th anniversary of Luther's 1517 posting of the Ninety-Five Theses — a commemoration repeated across Protestant German states in 1717 with considerable civic and theological fervor. By that date, Rothenburg had been a Protestant stronghold for nearly two centuries, having adopted Lutheranism in the 1540s. The city's decision to strike a gold commemorative rather than a silver medal signals both civic ambition and the relative prosperity the town had recovered following its near-destruction during the Thirty Years' War.

Fr#2600 confirms this as a recognized Franconian rarity. Surviving examples in any grade are infrequent.