1/2 Thaler - Frederick William I Gelderland

Frederick William I acquired the Duchy of Gelderland as part of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, one of several territorial concessions Prussia extracted from the post-War of Spanish Succession settlement. This coin is among the issues produced specifically for that territory, struck with a regional designation to assert Hohenzollern authority over a duchy that had spent decades as a contested prize between the Dutch Republic, Brandenburg-Prussia, and the Austrian Habsburgs.

The Gelderland series is notably short-lived. Frederick William's interest in consolidating rather than elaborating his monetary apparatus meant these regionally distinct issues gave way to more unified coinage within a generation.