Jan II Kazimierz abdicated in 1668 after a reign defined by catastrophe — the Swedish Deluge, Cossack uprisings, and a war with Muscovy that collectively reduced the Commonwealth's population by roughly a third. The Wschowa mint operated intermittently through this period, and ducats from the early reign years like this 1650 piece predate the worst of those convulsions, struck when the new king still commanded something resembling a functioning treasury.
Wschowa (Fraustadt) was a relatively minor mint in Greater Poland, active in fits and starts. Its ducats are noticeably scarcer than Warsaw or Kraków output from the same reign.
Jan II Kazimierz abdicated in 1668 after a reign defined by catastrophe — the Swedish Deluge, Cossack uprisings, and a war with Muscovy that collectively reduced the Commonwealth's population by roughly a third. The Wschowa mint operated intermittently through this period, and ducats from the early reign years like this 1650 piece predate the worst of those convulsions, struck when the new king still commanded something resembling a functioning treasury.
Wschowa (Fraustadt) was a relatively minor mint in Greater Poland, active in fits and starts. Its ducats are noticeably scarcer than Warsaw or Kraków output from the same reign.