2 Ducats Bicentenary of the Reformation

Rothenburg ob der Tauber struck this piece in 1717 to mark exactly two hundred years since Luther's posting of the Ninety-Five Theses — a commemorative impulse shared by dozens of German Protestant cities that year, each producing their own Reformationsjubiläum coinage. Rothenburg had been a Lutheran stronghold since the 1540s, and the bicentenary gave its civic authorities a pointed opportunity to reaffirm confessional identity at a moment when Habsburg Catholic pressure on Protestant imperial cities remained a live political concern.

The Franconian city's output was modest, and Fr#2599 appears infrequently at auction.