The first and rarest type of Sigismund Augustus' Lithuanian trojaks.
A typologically necessary issue that lasted only two years!
Sigismund II began his minting activities in Lithuania as early as 1545, before the death of his father, King Sigismund the Old. At that time, he issued half-pennies and pennies for the Lithuanian foot at the mint in Vilnius. In 1546, he expanded, among other things, to include trojaki - a coin that was thick for the time, equal to three Polish pennies. However, this issue was quickly discontinued, as early as 1547, in favor of half-pennies and denarii, the minting of which brought the mint's managers more profit.
The present coin is the first, noticeably rarer, of two vintages of this type of Sigismund's trojak (with a bust on the obverse and a horizontal inscription on the reverse). It was minted before the long hiatus in the issuance of this denomination in the Republic, until 1562, when the mint minted the first broad Lithuanian trojaks - coins that are difficult to obtain today, but not comparable to this vintage. This is confirmed by our archives, where we had the 1546 vintage on offer only 1 time, while the broad trojak was listed 14 times.
