1/2 Thaler - John George I Death

John George I died in October 1656 after a reign of over four decades — long enough to see Saxony through the catastrophic Thirty Years' War, during which his shifting alliances between the Habsburg Emperor and the Swedish crown left the electorate economically and demographically devastated. These memorial halves were struck at Dresden in the immediate aftermath of his death, a standard practice among the Albertinian Wettin rulers for commemorating electoral succession.

Cl/Kahnt 353 is among the more frequently encountered of the John George I death series, though attrition from the period's brutal coin melting practices keeps genuinely sharp survivors scarce.