1 Thaler Type 1

Riga struck this thaler in the years immediately following its formal incorporation into the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth under the Treaty of Drohiczyn (1559), a political accommodation that left the city with unusual autonomy and its own municipal coinage rights. The low silver content reflects the chronic bullion shortages afflicting Baltic minting in the 1570s — Riga was drawing on whatever metal could be sourced commercially rather than from consistent crown supply.

Davenport's EC I classification places this among the earliest thaler-weight billon issues from the city, predating the better-documented Sigismund III-era coinage by over a decade.