Anhalt-Plötzkau was among the smallest and most short-lived of the Anhalt partition states, existing as a separate duchy only from 1603 to 1665. August, its ruling prince, issued this double goldgulden in 1620 — the opening year of the Thirty Years' War, when German princes across the Empire were scrambling to assert dynastic legitimacy and financial independence simultaneously. High-denomination gold issues from territories this small were often as much political statement as monetary instrument.
Fr#31 is exceptionally rare in any condition. Plötzkau's mint output was negligible, and survival rates for gold of this module from the early war period are poor.
Anhalt-Plötzkau was among the smallest and most short-lived of the Anhalt partition states, existing as a separate duchy only from 1603 to 1665. August, its ruling prince, issued this double goldgulden in 1620 — the opening year of the Thirty Years' War, when German princes across the Empire were scrambling to assert dynastic legitimacy and financial independence simultaneously. High-denomination gold issues from territories this small were often as much political statement as monetary instrument.
Fr#31 is exceptionally rare in any condition. Plötzkau's mint output was negligible, and survival rates for gold of this module from the early war period are poor.