2 Ducats - John George II Vicariat

The Reichsvikariat was a rare constitutional mechanism of the Holy Roman Empire — when an emperor died without a confirmed successor, certain princes assumed temporary administrative authority over the empire. John George II exercised this right as Elector of Saxony following the death of Ferdinand III in April 1657, before Leopold I was elected that July. Vicariat coinage was deliberately commemorative, struck to assert and document the elector's imperial standing during the interregnum.

Saxony and the Palatinate disputed Vikariat rights repeatedly across the seventeenth century, making each issue as much a political declaration as a coin.