Watch List notes:

† - Transylvania, Gabriel Bethlen, 10 ducats, 1616, Klausenburg (Cluj), GAB BETLEN DG P TRAN PART REG HVN DO ET SI CO, bust of Bethlen l., wearing plumed cap, rev. DNS ILLUM MEA..., armoured arm appearing from cloud holds sword impaling a crown, legend on scroll reading CONSILIO FIRMATA DEI (Fr.345; Resch 12), almost certainly once mounted and a small striking split by G of REG, some light tooling in fields, very fine, typical grade for this rarity struck only in this year. Born in 1580, this prince of Transylvania found himself at the centre of a religious squabble which caused this Protestant to side with the Ottoman sultan Ahmed I, who boldly proclaimed Gabriel a prince and placed an army at his command. The sultan's objective was to pit Christian against Christian, specifically the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II against the Bohemian Calvinist Frederick V. Using this army, Gabriel drove his old protector, Prince Sigismund Báthory, from power and was duly officially made Prince of Transylvania in 1613. This coin's portrait shows him in military garb as he was about to enter into further conflict during the Thirty Years' War (beginning in 1618). He died of poor health while the wars raged on. (£5000 - 8000)