Goslar's coinage rights were a persistent source of friction between the city and the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel duchy throughout the eighteenth century, with the city jealously defending its imperial free status even as its economic importance faded. By 1764, Goslar was a shadow of the medieval mining powerhouse it had once been — the Rammelsberg silver mines that had funded centuries of coinage were largely exhausted, meaning the silver for this very piece was almost certainly imported rather than locally smelted.
Goslar's coinage rights were a persistent source of friction between the city and the Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel duchy throughout the eighteenth century, with the city jealously defending its imperial free status even as its economic importance faded. By 1764, Goslar was a shadow of the medieval mining powerhouse it had once been — the Rammelsberg silver mines that had funded centuries of coinage were largely exhausted, meaning the silver for this very piece was almost certainly imported rather than locally smelted.