2 Goldgulden - Gotthard Kettler Wenden, wavy bottom

Gotthard Kettler, the last Master of the Livonian Order, struck these pieces during the Order's terminal collapse under simultaneous pressure from Ivan the Terrible's advancing forces and internal dissolution. The Livonian War, which began in 1558, effectively ended the Order as a functioning political body within three years — making the entire 1559–1561 window a minting period for an institution already in the process of liquidating itself.

Kettler would formally secularize the remaining territory in 1561, converting it into the Duchy of Courland under Polish-Lithuanian suzerainty. Coins struck in his name as Master are consequently few, and the Wenden mint issues with the wavy-bottom shield variant represent a narrow die-specific subset of an already short-lived type.