1/2 Thaler - Frederick William I

Frederick William I's relationship with silver coinage was complicated by his obsessive military buildup — essentially every thaler extracted from the Prussian economy went toward funding the largest standing army in Europe relative to population size. The 1721 date places this issue squarely in his post-Northern War period, when Prussia had secured Stettin and parts of Swedish Pomerania under the 1720 Treaty of Frederiksborg, giving the kingdom expanded access to Baltic trade revenue.

KM#195 is among the less frequently encountered fractional issues of his reign, overshadowed in collector attention by the full thaler series.