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1 Ducat - Ernest of Bavaria
| Issuer | Passau, Bishopric of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1537 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | Standing full-length figure of Saint Stephen, patron saint of Passau Cathedral, depicted facing slightly forward in ecclesiastical vestments and holding a palm frond in his right hand and stones — the instruments of his martyrdom — in his left. The figure is nimbed and set within a beaded inner circle. The surrounding Latin legend reads S STEPHAN P THOMART, invoking the saint. The style is typical of South German Renaissance hammered gold coinage of the 1530s. |
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| Additional information |
Ernest of Bavaria was appointed Bishop of Passau in 1517 at the age of fourteen — a nakedly dynastic move by the Wittelsbach family to consolidate ecclesiastical revenues. He never took holy orders and governed the see as an administrator rather than a clergyman, a not uncommon arrangement among German prince-bishops of the period. By 1537, when this ducat was struck, the Reformation had made Passau's position acutely uncomfortable, sitting as it did between Lutheran territories pressing from multiple directions.
The MB#52 attribution places this among the rarer documented issues of his episcopate.