1⁄16 Thaler - Francis George of Schönborn Death

Francis George of Schönborn-Wolfsthal served as Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1729 until his death in January 1756, and this piece was struck as a memorial issue following that event — a practice common among the ecclesiastical princes of the Holy Roman Empire, where death coins marked the passing of a ruler who held both spiritual and secular authority. The Schönborn family itself was one of the most dynastically ambitious clerical houses of the period, placing members in archbishoprics across the Empire simultaneously.

The 1⁄16 Thaler denomination placed this squarely in everyday circulation rather than the presentation tier.