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81/4 Ducats - Ernest of Bavaria
| Issuer | Cologne, Archbishopric of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1608 |
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| Diameter | 43 mm |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Ernest of Bavaria facing right, wearing elaborately engraved plate armor with a ruff collar, set within a beaded inner circle framed by a laurel wreath. The surrounding legend in Latin reads in two concentric bands, giving the archbishop's full titulature as Elector of Cologne, Bishop of Liège, Administrator of Hildesheim and Münster, Count Palatine, and Duke of Bavaria. The portrait is rendered in high relief in the Late Renaissance style characteristic of early seventeenth-century German goldsmith work. |
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| Reverse lettering | 16 08 HL |
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| Additional information |
Ernest of Bavaria held the Archbishopric of Cologne from 1583 until his death in 1612, and was simultaneously Bishop of Freising, Hildesheim, Liège, and Münster — a concentration of ecclesiastical offices that made him one of the most politically powerful clerics in the Holy Roman Empire. This multiple-ducat piece was struck in 1608 near the height of his tenure, at a moment when the Wittelsbachs were aggressively consolidating Catholic influence ahead of what would become the confessional conflicts of the following decade.
Large multiple-ducat issues of this type functioned as presentation or diplomatic pieces rather than circulating currency. The Wittelsbach corpus cataloguing this issue reflects how deliberately such coins were commissioned — each strike a calculated instrument of dynastic display.