20 Ducats - Albert V

Multiple-ducat pieces of this scale were never intended for commerce. Albert V of Bavaria struck them as diplomatic gifts and display objects — Schaumünzen in the German tradition — distributed to visiting dignitaries and used to project Wittelsbach wealth during a period when the dynasty was aggressively patronizing the arts and consolidating Catholic identity against Lutheran encroachment. Albert's court in Munich was simultaneously hosting Orlando di Lasso and assembling what would become the Kunstkammer, and coins like this one belonged to that same culture of conspicuous magnificence.

The Wittelsbach 396 designation places this among a documented sequence; surviving examples in this denomination from 1565 are exceptionally rare in any condition.