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1 Ducat - Gustav Adolphus II
| Issuer | Free Imperial City of Nuremberg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1632 |
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| Composition | Gold (.986) |
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| Obverse description | Laureate and armored bust of Gustav II Adolf, King of Sweden, facing right, wearing a lace collar and elaborate plate armor with visible gorget; the effigy is rendered in high relief in the late Renaissance portrait style. A wreath of laurel adorns the king's head. The surrounding circular legend reads GVSTAV:ADOLPH.DG:SVEC GOTH:VAND:REX MAG:PRI: in Latin capital letters, separated by colons, running from the upper right and continuing around the periphery of the coin. The field is otherwise plain, with a milled border encircling the design. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Gustav Adolphus II died at the Battle of Lützen in November 1632 — the same year this ducat was struck — making issues bearing his name and likeness among the last produced during his lifetime. Nuremberg, a Protestant stronghold with a long tradition of honoring allied military commanders through civic coinage, had strong political motivation to commemorate the Swedish king: his army had relieved the city during the catastrophic siege of 1632, during which famine and disease killed tens of thousands of its inhabitants.
The city issued similar memorial ducats immediately after his death, complicating precise attribution of "lifetime" versus posthumous strikes within this KM type.