The Kingdom of Westphalia was a Napoleonic creation — assembled in 1807 from Prussian, Hessian, and Brunswick territories and handed to Jérôme Bonaparte as a showpiece of French imperial governance. A new coinage system was needed immediately, and pattern strikes in tin were a standard preliminary step before committing to silver production. This piece represents that preparatory work, almost certainly struck at the Cassel mint during the frantic administrative setup of the new kingdom's institutions.
KM# Pn1 is the first catalogued pattern for Westphalian coinage — which tells you something about where this sits in the sequence.
The Kingdom of Westphalia was a Napoleonic creation — assembled in 1807 from Prussian, Hessian, and Brunswick territories and handed to Jérôme Bonaparte as a showpiece of French imperial governance. A new coinage system was needed immediately, and pattern strikes in tin were a standard preliminary step before committing to silver production. This piece represents that preparatory work, almost certainly struck at the Cassel mint during the frantic administrative setup of the new kingdom's institutions.
KM# Pn1 is the first catalogued pattern for Westphalian coinage — which tells you something about where this sits in the sequence.