3 Ducats

Nuremberg's multi-ducat issues of the early eighteenth century were prestige pieces, struck for presentation rather than commerce. The city's mint had long produced such multiples as diplomatic gifts and council rewards — currency in a social rather than economic sense. By 1703, the Free Imperial City was navigating the opening years of the War of the Spanish Succession, a conflict that strained the finances of virtually every German polity caught between Habsburg obligation and self-interest.

At .986 fine, the gold approaches the theoretical purity ceiling of period refinement.