10 Ducats - Christina

Issued in the year the Peace of Westphalia's territorial settlements were being consolidated, this multiple ducat was struck in Bremen-Verden at a moment when Sweden's hold on the duchy was still diplomatically fresh — the peace had been signed only in 1648, formally ceding the territory to the Swedish crown. Christina, who abdicated four years later in 1654, authorized a series of prestige coinages from her German territories that functioned more as diplomatic currency than circulating money.

Ten-ducat pieces of this type were presentation strikes, almost certainly distributed at court rather than spent. Fr#439 survivors are rare in any condition.