Ducat Counterfeit of Dutch issue

(en) Thanks to the wide acceptance of the Dutch gold ducats between the 16th and 19th centuries, many imitations and counterfeits of these coins are found in various European countries. Imitations are not intended to be identical with the master coin. For instance, the Polish 1831 Uprising ducat is an imitation of the Dutch gold ducat. An eagle, the Warsaw mint mark, is present on the coins, differentiating them from the Utrecht issues with the caduceus mint mark.

In contrast, the Russian counterfeits were minted against the will of the issuing authority. Counterfeits of the Dutch gold ducats were excessively minted in the late 18thcentury and especially in the 19th century in Saint Petersburg. They are so-called Russian strikes, and they were minted in addition to the Russian imitations of the Dutch ducats. Russian strikes were minted at the St. Petersburg mint from 1768 until the 1870s. However, since they were minted against the will of the Dutch issuing authorities and were intended to be identical with the master coin, they cannot be called imitations, but counterfeits. Despite the fact that the Netherlands actually temporarily stopped minting ducats in 1849, and sent a formal diplomatic message to the Russian court, asking them to stop minting the counterfeits, these Russian counterfeits with the date of 1849 were minted in large numbers for about two decades. Some of the St. Petersburg mint records, as well as lead trial strikes, that document all of this still exist today.

References
Dariusz F. Jasek, Doug Prather (editor); 2015. "Gold ducats of the Netherlands". Knight Press.