5 Ducats - Carl X Gustav

Carl X Gustav had been King of Sweden for less than a year when Riga struck this piece in 1654. The city, under Swedish control since 1621, maintained the right to produce municipal gold coinage — a privilege jealously guarded and exercised sparingly, which accounts for the extreme rarity of multi-ducat issues from this mint.

The timing matters: Carl X Gustav would spend much of his reign at war, launching the First Northern War against Poland-Lithuania in 1655. Presentation-grade gold of this weight was already serving diplomatic and ceremonial functions more than monetary ones.