1 Ducat Silver pattern strike

Pattern strikes in silver from Free Imperial Cities like Regensburg were typically produced for presentation to civic officials or as Probe pieces submitted alongside bids from competing die-cutters. Regensburg's mint was active throughout the mid-eighteenth century largely because the city hosted the Immerwährender Reichstag — the perpetual Imperial Diet that sat there continuously from 1663 until Napoleon dissolved it in 1806, giving the city both the political prestige and the practical need to maintain a functioning mint operation.