| Obverse description |
Full-length facing figure of Ferdinand I, crowned and clad in elaborate armour, standing erect in the field with a sword at his left side and his right hand resting on his hip. The king wears a crown and detailed plate armour rendered in the Renaissance style characteristic of mid-sixteenth-century Habsburg coinage. A mintmaster's mark appears at the base of the design below the figure. The surrounding legend, separated from the central device by a beaded inner circle and a milled outer border, reads MON AVRE FERDINAND D G, identifying the coin as a gold monetary issue of Ferdinand by the Grace of God. |
| Reverse description |
Quartered shield of arms surmounted by an ornate crown occupies the central field, displaying in the quarters the lion of Bohemia and the eagle of the Habsburg hereditary lands, with the date split across the lower quarters reading 15-42 (or the relevant year of issue). A beaded inner circle frames the shield, and the surrounding Latin legend, interrupted by ornamental stops, reads ROM VNG BOE REX IN HIS ARCHID CAR, proclaiming Ferdinand as King of the Romans, Hungary, and Bohemia, and Archduke of Austria and Carinthia. The outer rim is defined by a milled or corded border consistent with hammered gold coinage of the Klagenfurt mint. |
