1⁄12 Reichsthaler - Frederick II

Frederick II's mid-century billon fractional issues served a practical need: the Seven Years' War had not yet begun, but Prussia's treasury was already under strain from the War of Austrian Succession and the ongoing cost of maintaining Europe's most disciplined standing army. Small-denomination coins like this 1⁄12 Reichsthaler bore much of the daily transaction burden across Prussian territories. Frederick was famously unsentimental about his coinage — he debased deliberately and systematically, and the .375 fineness here was no accident but policy.