1 Ferding - Gotthard Kettler and Wilhelm von Brandenburg Riga

The joint authority behind this coin was itself a symptom of the Livonian Confederation's terminal crisis. By 1559, the Order and the Archbishopric of Riga had spent decades in bitter rivalry, but the catastrophic losses of the Livonian War — Ivan the Terrible's forces had shattered the Order at the Battle of Ergeme in 1560 — forced Kettler into the humiliating Vilnius Agreement, surrendering Livonia to Lithuanian protection. The joint coinage was less a political partnership than a desperate administrative improvisation during collapse.