Trzydukat gdański - Jan II Kazimierz Waza Gdańsk mint

The "trzydukat" — a triple ducat struck at Gdańsk — was not a denomination in any administrative sense but a prestige piece, produced on special commission to mark diplomatic occasions, royal visits, or as gifts of state. Gdańsk, enjoying considerable autonomy as a royal city, maintained its own mint with exceptional technical capacity, and its gold strikings from the mid-seventeenth century are consistently among the finest produced anywhere in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jan II Kazimierz's reign was defined by catastrophe: the Swedish invasion known as the Potop began in 1655, and Gdańsk was one of the few major cities that refused to capitulate.