1 Ducat - Franz I

Franz II of the Holy Roman Empire became Franz I of Austria in August 1804, a preemptive move prompted by Napoleon's assumption of the French imperial title. The Austrian ducat continued under the new imperial designation, though the Holy Roman Empire itself was formally dissolved in 1806 when Franz abdicated that crown under French military pressure following Austerlitz. Coins of this type therefore span the precise moment the oldest continuous imperial title in European history ceased to exist.

The .986 fineness of the Austrian ducat was among the highest maintained by any major European mint of the period, a standard preserved deliberately to sustain the coin's credibility in Levantine and Asian trade routes where it had circulated for centuries.