1 Ducat - Charles XII Type IV

Charles XII spent virtually the entire period 1712–1717 outside Sweden — first as a prisoner-guest of the Ottoman Empire following his defeat at Poltava in 1709, then making his famous 16-day horseback ride back to Pomerania in 1714. These ducats were issued in his name by a government he was not physically present to govern, the Riksråd administering affairs under increasingly strained circumstances as the Great Northern War ground on.

The .976 fineness is notably high even by contemporary ducat standards, reflecting the Swedish tradition of producing gold coinage to near-maximum purity regardless of fiscal pressure.