2 Ducats - In name of Ferdinand

Kampen, a prosperous Hanseatic port on the IJssel, struck these gold ducats in the name of the Habsburg emperor Ferdinand — a deliberate political gesture maintaining nominal imperial allegiance while the city navigated the increasingly dangerous divisions of the Dutch Revolt. By the 1580s, Kampen had joined the Union of Utrecht but continued issuing coinage invoking Ferdinand I, who had died in 1564, a lag of nearly two decades between political reality and the name on the coin.

Fr#149 is among the scarcer Low Countries gold issues of the period. Surviving examples in any condition are infrequently offered.