The Peace of Westphalia, concluded in 1648 across two simultaneous treaty signings in Osnabrück and Münster, ended the Thirty Years' War and reshaped the political geography of the Holy Roman Empire. Regensburg had served as a congress city and seat of the Perpetual Diet, giving the Free City both symbolic standing and a practical motive to commemorate the settlement. Pattern strikes in silver from this issue were produced as presentation pieces rather than currency — the ducat denomination in silver is itself a contradiction, since ducats were by definition gold coins.
Plato 176 is documented as a silver Probe, struck from ducat dies on a silver planchet of roughly equivalent weight.
The Peace of Westphalia, concluded in 1648 across two simultaneous treaty signings in Osnabrück and Münster, ended the Thirty Years' War and reshaped the political geography of the Holy Roman Empire. Regensburg had served as a congress city and seat of the Perpetual Diet, giving the Free City both symbolic standing and a practical motive to commemorate the settlement. Pattern strikes in silver from this issue were produced as presentation pieces rather than currency — the ducat denomination in silver is itself a contradiction, since ducats were by definition gold coins.
Plato 176 is documented as a silver Probe, struck from ducat dies on a silver planchet of roughly equivalent weight.