Dziesięciodukat litewski - Stefan Batory Wilno mint

The ten-ducat piece — a multiple intended for presentation rather than commerce — belongs to a class of extraordinary gold issues ordered by Stefan Batory in the years following his hard-won seizure of the Polish crown in 1576. Batory, a Transylvanian prince imposed on the Polish nobility by Ottoman backing, used lavish gold multiples partly as diplomatic instruments: gifts to foreign courts, payments to mercenary commanders, tokens of royal magnanimity to the Sejm. The Wilno mint, operating under the Lithuanian treasury separately from the Crown mints at Kraków and Poznań, produced these pieces in small and irregular runs.

Kop. 3390 is among the rarest references in Kopicki's catalogue for this reign.