1 Ducat - William IX Marriage

Struck to commemorate the 1764 marriage of William IX of Hanau-Münzenberg — the future Landgrave Wilhelm IX of Hesse-Kassel, later notorious for leasing Hessian troops to the British during the American Revolutionary War. The County of Hanau-Münzenberg issued marriage ducats as a matter of dynastic protocol, and this piece follows that convention, but William's subsequent career gives it an ironic historical weight: the man celebrated here would later profit enormously from hired-soldier contracts, accumulating one of the largest private fortunes in Europe by 1800.