2 Ducat

Hamburg's two-ducat pieces of this period were struck during the prolonged disruption of northern European trade following the Thirty Years' War, which had ended in 1648 — just one year before this type's first issue. The city, though technically unoccupied during the conflict, suffered severe commercial contraction as Baltic and North Sea trade networks collapsed around it. Resumption of normal merchant activity created immediate demand for high-purity gold specie acceptable across competing monetary jurisdictions.

KM#228 is known across multiple die marriages within the emission period, and attribution can shift depending on the specific haakenschilling reverse die used.