Ducat

The Monetary Union of the Three Forest Cantons — Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden — was a pragmatic response to the chronic shortage of reliable gold coinage circulating through the central Swiss passes. These cantons controlled the St. Gotthard route, and the ducat was as much a commercial instrument for Alpine transit trade as anything else. The joint issue formalized a monetary agreement among polities that were politically allied but economically distinct.

Production was limited and short-lived. By the mid-sixteenth century the union had effectively ceased issuing gold, making survivorship from the 1520 emission genuinely rare.