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.
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.