1⁄12 Reichsthaler - Francis Josias

Francis Josias ruled Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld from 1735 until his death in 1764, spending much of that reign as a field marshal in Habsburg service — he commanded Imperial forces during the War of the Austrian Succession and the early Seven Years' War, which overlaps precisely with this issue's production window. A duke more often found in the field than at court, his domestic coinage was a largely administrative affair managed by the Saalfeld mint. The 1⁄12 Reichsthaler denomination, tied to the Leipzig monetary convention of 1690, remained the workhorse fractional silver of the Saxon circle well into the eighteenth century.