Hello, Loopy,

The gold lamb ducat shown is square, but others are round. They come from the old German Free City of Nuremburg in Bavaria. With a weigth of 7 grams, yours is probably the 2 ducat denomination.

NEVER CLEAN A COIN. CLEANING RUINS VALUE.

Here at CoinQuest we are over our heads with coins like this. We do not have an ancient coin expert, and the field is quite large and very specialized. One catalog we have shows a round 2 ducat cataloging at $1500 US dollars in average circulated condition. But the same catalog shows ducats as low as $150. You will have to find an expert to give you better information on value.

Our picture comes from Forum Ancient Coins and there, no doubt, you can find the experts you seek. For a good evaluation, provide a scan or photograph of your coin. Scanning coins usually gives better results than photographing them. If you do photograph, turn the flash off and use macro mode.

There are also a bunch of reputable dealers at VCoins.com who may be able to help.

Finally, there is a possibility that your coin is a counterfeit. This is the case with any valuable coin. Click on our Counterfeits category to see CoinQuest's small collection of fake coins, and what to do abou them.