1 Ducat - Melchior of Hatzfeldt-Gleichen

Melchior von Hatzfeldt-Gleichen was one of the most decorated Imperial commanders of the Thirty Years' War, credited with key victories at Herbsthausen in 1645. He retired from military life in 1659 having accumulated enormous wealth and territorial influence, and it was in this late period that the county exercised its minting rights with issues like this ducat. Small territorial coinages of this type were struck in tiny quantities for presentation, payment of obligations, or simple assertion of comital privilege — not circulation.

The county's minting activity was brief. Melchior died in 1658, making an attribution to him on a 1666 issue potentially posthumous — possibly struck under his successor invoking his name or titles.