Ducat - Margaret van Brederode

The Abbey of Thorn was an imperial abbey — a Reichsstift — answering directly to the Holy Roman Emperor rather than any territorial prince, which gave its abbesses the right to mint coin. Margaret van Brederode held that position from 1557 until her death in 1577, issuing gold ducats under that privilege at a moment when the Low Countries were sliding toward the revolt against Spanish Habsburg rule. Her family, the Brederodes, would within a decade become central figures in that resistance.

Thorn's minting rights were real but modest in output; surviving gold pieces are genuinely scarce.