10 Ducats - John Nepomuk

John Nepomuk I of Schwarzenberg commissioned this ten-ducat piece in 1783 as a Schaugroschen — a display coin rather than a circulation issue — consistent with the practice of mediatized German princes who retained minting rights but had little practical monetary use for them. The Schwarzenberg family, one of the wealthiest Bohemian noble houses, controlled vast estates across the Habsburg lands and used prestige coinages partly to assert the privileges codified under the Holy Roman Empire's feudal structure, which was already fraying by the 1780s under Joseph II's centralizing reforms.

The KM#70 attribution aligns with a small series of high-denomination gold issues from this principality, none struck in quantities suggesting anything beyond presentation purposes.