4 Ducats - Imre Thököly

Thököly struck these gold multiples at the height of his power, immediately following his recognition by the Ottomans as King of Upper Hungary in 1682. The timing matters: 1683 is the year of the failed Ottoman siege of Vienna, an campaign Thököly actively supported by keeping Habsburg forces divided on their eastern flank. His coinage functioned as much as a political declaration as a circulating medium — a Protestant rebel prince asserting legitimacy through gold.

Resch records only a handful of confirmed specimens, and the MBR attribution places this among the rarest of Transylvanian multiples. Most surviving examples trace back to old aristocratic collections in Hungary and Austria.