2 Ducats - John Frederick Charles of Ostein

John Frederick Charles of Ostein served as Archbishop-Elector of Mainz from 1743 until his death in 1763, a tenure that coincided with the turbulent lead-up to the Seven Years' War. Mainz, as one of the three ecclesiastical electorates of the Holy Roman Empire, retained the right to strike gold coinage — a privilege jealously maintained even as the political weight of the electorate diminished against the rising power of Prussia and Austria.

The four-year window of this issue suggests production tied to a specific fiscal need rather than a continuous minting program.