1⁄12 Thaler - Ernest August

Ernest August acceded to the throne of Hanover in 1837 under the peculiar mechanics of the Salic Law: when Victoria became Queen of Britain, the two crowns — united since George I in 1714 — finally separated, since Hanover barred female succession. His first act of genuine controversy was revoking the liberal constitution of 1833, dismissing seven Göttingen professors who protested publicly, an incident that scandalized much of Europe. This small fractional silver issue belongs to the earliest years of his reign, minted while the political fallout from that dismissal was still very much alive.