1⁄12 Thaler - Frederick August I

Frederick August I — better known outside Saxony as Augustus the Strong — was simultaneously Elector of Saxony and, from 1697, elected King of Poland as Augustus II. Maintaining two courts and funding near-constant military and diplomatic ambition required an aggressive coinage program, and the small silver denominations of this period bear that pressure directly. The 1⁄12 Thaler was a workhorse of everyday Saxon commerce, produced in quantity at the Dresden and Leipzig mints during years when the Great Northern War was draining Polish-Saxon treasuries.

KM#765 spans 1708–1710, a particularly strained window — Poltava was fought in 1709, reshaping the entire northern European balance and temporarily stabilizing Augustus's shaky Polish throne after Charles XII of Sweden had forced his abdication in 1706.