Very rare forgery of a full-figure ducat of Sigismund I the Old from 1548. Coin made by a well-known and at the same time valued forger of Polish coins, who, as Mańkowski writes, surpassed the famous MAJNERT in his craft. The dies were hand-made by engraver and goldsmith FEIN on behalf of attorney Hausmann, who was the initiator of the entire procedure of forging coins. These coins were introduced into the collector's circulation by the third of the gentlemen, Zelman Igel, who introduced so many of these coins into circulation that while in Poland fake thalers were called Majnert, in Germany fake ducats were called Igel. Igel's forgeries found their way into the most distinguished 19th-century collections, including the Ossolineum, the Potocki collection, or the collection of Countess Izabella Starzyńska.
Specimen of extraordinary class coming from the above-mentioned, legendary Collection of Radziwill and Kaleniecki Collection and, more recently, from the distinguished Collection of Lech Kokociński.
Obverse: figure of the king in a cloak, holding an orb of rule in his left hand, a sceptre topped with a cross in his right hand, a heraldic shield between his legs
S:SIGISMVN-DCS REX:
Reverse: under the crown a five-field heraldic shield, a squared Polish Eagle and Lithuanian Pursuit, in the heart field an Austrian bar
SIGIS PRIM REX POLO 1548
Gold, diameter 23 mm, weight 3.39 g
