2 Ducats - Ferdinand II St Veit

Ferdinand II's St. Veit mint — located in Carinthia — operated under increasingly difficult conditions during the Thirty Years' War, which was still grinding through its second decade in 1632. That same year, Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden was killed at Lützen, a battle that fundamentally altered the war's trajectory. Gold coinage from Habsburg provincial mints in this period was produced primarily to pay troops and conduct diplomacy rather than for ordinary commerce.

St. Veit ceased meaningful gold production shortly after Ferdinand II's death in 1637, making his later-dated ducats from this facility genuinely scarce by attrition rather than low original mintage.