1 Ducat - Vladislav I Type I

Vladislav I — known as Vlaicu Vodă — introduced Wallachian gold coinage in deliberate imitation of the Florentine and Hungarian ducat tradition, a political signal as much as an economic one. The principality was navigating competing pressures from the Kingdom of Hungary and the emerging Ottoman power to the south, and the ability to mint gold was a direct assertion of sovereign standing. Type I is distinguished from later issues by specific die characteristics catalogued under MBR#4; the series did not survive long into the next reign in this form.