2 Ducats - Albrecht von Wallenstein

Albrecht von Wallenstein was not a sovereign by birth or dynastic right — he purchased the Duchy of Friedland in 1622 after profiteering spectacularly from the forced sales of confiscated Protestant estates following the Battle of White Mountain. The right to strike coinage came with the territory, and Wallenstein used it aggressively, issuing gold in his own name at a moment when his military command of Imperial forces made him arguably the most powerful man in central Europe not wearing a crown.

Ferdinand II dismissed him in 1630 under pressure from the Catholic League princes who feared him. He was recalled almost immediately as Swedish intervention under Gustav Adolf turned the war decisively against the Empire. Wallenstein was assassinated at Eger in February 1634, and Friedland was dissolved. These ducats were struck entirely within that fraught second command.