1 Ducat Bicentenary of the Reformation

The bicentenary of Luther's 1517 posting of the Ninety-Five Theses prompted a wave of commemorative coinage across the Protestant German states in 1717, and Stolberg-Stolberg — a tiny county in the Harz region — was among the lesser lordships that seized the occasion. Frederick Christian of Stolberg-Stolberg ruled a territory of negligible political weight, yet the Reformation centenary issues gave minor Protestant rulers a legitimate pretext for independent coinage that doubled as confessional propaganda directed at Catholic neighbors.

Stolberg's 1717 ducat is scarce by any measure; the county's minting capacity was limited, and surviving examples appear infrequently at auction.