2 Ducats - John George I

John George I ruled Saxony through the entirety of the Thirty Years' War, and his position was among the most politically tortured of any German prince — a Lutheran elector who initially resisted Swedish intervention, then allied with Gustavus Adolphus after imperial troops sacked Magdeburg in 1631, then defected back toward the Habsburgs with the Peace of Prague in 1635. These ducats were struck across that entire arc of betrayal and realignment.

The Dresden mint produced multiple die varieties across this long run, and the Fr#2682 designation covers what is effectively a family of issues rather than a single homogeneous type. Dating is often the critical variable for collectors — pieces from the early 1630s correspond to active Saxon involvement in the war's central campaigns.