1/2 Batzen - Frederick III

Frederick III ruled the Electoral Palatinate as a committed Calvinist — the only Calvinist among the Imperial Electors — which brought him into direct conflict with both Lutheran princes and the Habsburg emperor throughout the 1560s and 1570s. His monetary issues were secondary to his political ambitions; he spent considerable Palatinate resources funding Huguenot campaigns in France and the Dutch revolt against Spain. The half-Batzen coinage of 1570 belongs to a stretch of issues produced while Frederick was navigating the aftermath of the Second Huguenot War and consolidating Reformed church governance in the Palatinate.