SWEDISH LIVONIA and RIGA

Arms of the Swedish Royal House of Vasa

Swedish Livonia (Swedish: Svenska Livland) was a dominion of the Swedish Empire from 1629 until 1721. The territory, which constituted the southern part of modern Estonia and northern part of modern Latvia (the Vidzeme region), represented the conquest of the major part of the Polish-Lithuanian Duchy of Livonia during the 1600–1629 Polish-Swedish War. Parts of Livonia and the city of Riga was under Swedish control as early as 1621, and the situation was formalized in Truce of Altmark 1629, but the whole territory was not ceded until the Treaty of Oliva in 1660. The minority part of the Wenden Voivodeship retained by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was renamed the Inflanty Voivodeship ("Livonian Principality"), which today corresponds to the Latgale region of Latvia.

Riga was the second largest city in the Swedish Empire at the time.

The territory in turn was conquered by Russian Empire during the Great Northern War and formed the Governorate of Livonia. It was occupied by Russian forces in 1710 but formally ceded to Russia in the Treaty of Nystad in 1721, together with Swedish Estonia and Swedish Ingria.

KEY IDENTIFICATION NOTES: There are several varieties of coins from this location, but most common are the little schillings shown below minted via roller press. SOLIDVS.CIVI.RIG(ENSIS) and the crossed-key arms of Riga are the identifiers for Schillings of the city itself, while SOLIDVS.LIVONIA(E) represent the general region. Similar designed coins were minted in the neighboring Polish towns of Elbing and Thorn.

1/24 Thaler

Schillings

Schillings of uncertain date