7 Ducats - Thomas I

Haldenstein was a tiny lordship in the Graubünden region of present-day Switzerland, and its right to strike gold coinage in the early seventeenth century was a privilege jealously guarded and infrequently exercised. Thomas I von Schauenstein held the lordship from 1608 and commissioned multiple-ducat pieces of this kind as prestige objects rather than circulating currency — seven-ducat strikes at this weight were effectively presentation pieces, distributed as diplomatic gifts or marks of favor.

The Frauenfeld reference Fr#266 places this among the rarest Swiss cantonal gold issues of the period. Surviving examples are almost exclusively in institutional collections.