1 Ducat - Henry IV Dücker

The twin abbeys of Werden and Helmstedt maintained a rare joint coinage right well into the seventeenth century — an ecclesiastical arrangement rooted in the Benedictine foundation at Werden, which dated to the late eighth century under Liudger. Henry IV Dücker served as abbot during one of the most destructive phases of the Thirty Years' War, and this 1647 ducat was struck just a year before the Peace of Westphalia ended three decades of devastation across the Rhineland and Westphalia. Gold issues from this abbey are scarce under any abbot; wartime production constraints make Dücker's issues particularly so.