The 1717 Reformation bicentenary prompted a wave of commemorative issues across Lutheran German states, and Ulm — a Free Imperial City that had adopted Lutheranism in 1531 — was among those that struck gold ducats for the occasion. The bicentenary fell exactly two hundred years after Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, and Frederick I of Prussia organized much of the empire-wide commemorative program, though individual cities produced their own dies independently.
Ulm lost its status as a Free Imperial City less than a century later, absorbed into Württemberg in 1803 during the Napoleonic reorganization of German territories. Issues like this ducat are among the last numismatic chapters of its independent civic identity.
The 1717 Reformation bicentenary prompted a wave of commemorative issues across Lutheran German states, and Ulm — a Free Imperial City that had adopted Lutheranism in 1531 — was among those that struck gold ducats for the occasion. The bicentenary fell exactly two hundred years after Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, and Frederick I of Prussia organized much of the empire-wide commemorative program, though individual cities produced their own dies independently.
Ulm lost its status as a Free Imperial City less than a century later, absorbed into Württemberg in 1803 during the Napoleonic reorganization of German territories. Issues like this ducat are among the last numismatic chapters of its independent civic identity.