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4 Ducats - Johann Christian and Georg Rudolf Oels
| Issuer | Liegnitz-Brieg, Duchy of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1622 |
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| Orientation | Medal alignment ↑↑ |
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| Obverse description | Two facing armored busts of the co-ruling dukes Heinrich Wenceslaus and Karl Friedrich confronted at center, each depicted in elaborate plate armor with ruff collars, the date 1622 inscribed below between the busts within a beaded inner circle. The encircling Latin legend reads around the periphery, with the mintmaster's initials H-T appearing at the base. The composition is struck in high relief with fine detail in the rendering of the armor and facial features, characteristic of early seventeenth-century Silesian workshop artistry. |
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| Reverse lettering | ·DUC·SI·MONS·/ET·OLS·CO·GLA· HT |
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| Additional information |
Oels was a small Silesian appanage duchy carved out of the Piast inheritance, and by 1622 its co-rulers Johann Christian and Georg Rudolf were caught in the opening devastation of the Thirty Years' War. Silesia, nominally Protestant and nominally Habsburg, was watching Bohemia burn after the Battle of White Mountain two years prior. Large gold multiples like this four-ducat piece were not circulation coinage — they functioned as diplomatic gifts, military payments to officers, or portable wealth extraction in an increasingly unstable region.
The Piast line in Silesia would die out entirely with Georg Rudolf in 1653, after which the Habsburgs absorbed the remaining territories directly.