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3 Groats - Sigismund II Augustus Tykocin mint
| Issuer | Grand Duchy of Lithuania |
|---|---|
| Year | 1565-1566 |
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| Currency | Lithuanian Groat (1495-1580) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Armored knight on horseback charging to the left, sword raised aloft in the right hand, in the Pahonia (Pogon) style typical of Lithuanian coinage. The denomination III in Roman numerals appears below the horse in the lower field. The encircling Latin legend reads SIGISM AVG REX POL MAG DVX LIT III, identifying Sigismund II Augustus as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. The die-cut lettering is bold and slightly irregular, consistent with hammered coinage of the mid-sixteenth century. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | 1565 - Iger V.65.1.a - 1565 - Iger V.65.1.b - 1565 - Iger V.65.1.c - 1565 - Iger V.65.1.d - 1565 - Iger V.65.1.e - 1565 - Iger V.65.1.f - 1566 - Iger V.66.1.a - |
| Additional information |
Tykocin — a town in Podlachia rather than Lithuania proper — served as an emergency minting site during the 1560s when Sigismund II Augustus needed to accelerate silver coinage to fund ongoing military operations against Muscovy in the Livonian War. The mint operated under royal privilege out of the king's own castle there, one of his preferred residences, making this a genuinely personal monetary initiative rather than a bureaucratic one.
Production ceased after just two years, which accounts for the relative scarcity of the type compared to Vilnius issues of the same reign.