Tu felix Austria nube – You, fortunate Austria, marry. The marriage of Ferdinand I Habsburg to Anne Jagellonica (also known as Anne of Bohemia and Hungary) in 1521 was the third of four marriages thanks to which the Habsburg empire was formed in three generations (the following territories were gradually added to patrimonial Austrian lands: 1477 – Burgundy, 1504 and 1516 – Castile and Aragon, 1526 – Bohemia and Hungary, 1580 – Portugal). Ferdinand I election in 1526 as Czech and Hungarian king laid the foundations of the almost Habsburg monarchy that existed almost 400 years.

Two Ferdinand I ducat replicas present two varying iconographic designs of St. Wenceslas’ figure. The first undated ducat features a precisely engraved figure of the saint with lettering in circumscription describing him as the Patron of Bohemia. On the second ducat of 1543 the saint’s figure is stylized and the text in circumscription reads Duke of Bohemia contrary to the previous coinage.