Stephen Báthory struck this Riga grossus in 1581, the same year his forces completed the Livonian War campaign that wrested the city definitively from Ivan the Terrible's reach. The coin is a direct product of that geopolitical settlement — Riga had been under Polish-Lithuanian suzerainty since 1561, but the mint only resumed issuing in Báthory's name following the Peace of Jam Zapolski earlier that year, which forced Muscovy to relinquish its Livonian claims entirely.
Stephen Báthory struck this Riga grossus in 1581, the same year his forces completed the Livonian War campaign that wrested the city definitively from Ivan the Terrible's reach. The coin is a direct product of that geopolitical settlement — Riga had been under Polish-Lithuanian suzerainty since 1561, but the mint only resumed issuing in Báthory's name following the Peace of Jam Zapolski earlier that year, which forced Muscovy to relinquish its Livonian claims entirely.