1⁄12 Thaler - Anthony Ulrich Death

Anthony Ulrich ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel for over half a century and spent much of that reign cultivating one of the most sophisticated courts in the Holy Roman Empire — a genuine rival, in his estimation, to Versailles. This 1704 issue marks the death of his eldest son and heir, August Wilhelm's older brother Anton Ulrich the Younger, not the duke himself, who would not die until 1714. The commemorative 1/12 Thaler format was a common vehicle for such dynastic grief in the German states, struck in small quantities for distribution among court mourners rather than general circulation.