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10 Dukat - Wolter von Plettenberg Wenden
| Issuer | Livonian Order |
|---|---|
| Year | 1528-1535 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Full-length armored figure of Wolter von Plettenberg, Landmaster of the Livonian Order, standing facing in three-quarter view within a beaded inner circle. The figure is depicted in full plate armor, holding a drawn sword upright in the right hand and a heraldic shield bearing the cross of the Livonian Order in the left hand. The face, rendered with a short beard, is turned slightly upward, conveying authority. A circular Latin legend surrounds the inner beaded border, reading MONE · NOVA · MAGRI : LIVON - I :, identifying this as the new coinage of the Master of Livonia. The entire composition is executed in the bold, high-relief hammered style characteristic of early sixteenth-century German goldsmiths' work. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Wolter von Plettenberg was the last effective military master of the Livonian Order, the man who stopped the Russian advance at the Battle of Smolina in 1502 and kept Ivan III's forces out of the Baltic for a generation. These large gold multiples were not circulation currency — they functioned as diplomatic gifts and presentation pieces, issued at a moment when the Order was simultaneously fending off Lutheran reform from within and renewed Muscovite pressure from the east. Plettenberg himself converted to Lutheranism around 1530, a remarkable concession for the head of a Catholic military order.
The Federal catalog's Fed#479 designation covers a small surviving population. Plettenberg died in 1535, fixing the upper bound of the issue.