Lithuania (15)91 ducat Fr-7
This specimen was lot 1072 in CNG Triton XXIX (New York, January 2026), where it sold for $55,125. The catalog description[1] noted,
"LITHUANIA, Grand Duchy. Zygimantas IV Vaza. 1588-1632. AV Ducat. Vilnius mint. Dated 1591. Crowned and armored bust right, wearing ruff / Crowned coat-of-arms. Heritage 3041, lot 32346 (hammer $65,000) = Antykwariat Numizmatyczny - Muchal niemczyk 11, lot 206 (hammer 360,000 PLN). In NGC encapsulation 8414450-001, graded AU Details, obv. spot removed. Extremely rare. Only one example in CoinArchives.
"Zygimantas (Sigismund) IV Vaza issued a remarkably brief series of gold ducats from the Vilnius mint. None appear to have been issued in the first year of his reign, and only the years 1589, 1590, and 1591 are known today, with the later being the rarest. Due to regional gold shortages, minting of the ducat denomination at Vilnius was abruptly suspended in 1591, with Zygimantas’s mint at Poznán in Poland also closed at this time. Only one other of this date has come to market in recent memory, an example graded VF 35 by NGC. The cataloger of that specimen in its most recent appearance noted that the date was first recorded for a ducat as early as 1875, and that Gumowski knew of two (now untraced) at the time of his 1921 work on the Vilnius mint. The date was missing from the great Hutten-Czapski Collection."
This king, who was also king of Sweden, was Sigismund III ("SIGIS·III·" on the obverse), not IV.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 3.49 g, 0.986 fine gold, this specimen 21 mm diameter, 3.46 g, 1 h axis.
Catalog reference: KM 4, S&K 2157; Ivanauskas 7SV4-3; Kopicki 3557; Hutten-Czapski –; Friedberg 7 (date not recorded).
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- [1]Gasvoda, Michael, Victor England, Eric McFadden, Dave Michaels, Bill Dalzell and Lance Hickman, Triton XXIX, Lancaster, PA: Classical Numismatic Group, LLC, 2025.
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