1/2 Thaler - William I

Hesse-Cassel's monetary output in 1819–1820 falls squarely in the chaotic transition period following the Congress of Vienna, when the restored Elector William I was scrambling to reassert administrative normalcy after more than a decade of Napoleonic disruption — his electorate had been dissolved entirely in 1806 and reconstituted as the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jérôme Bonaparte. The .750 fineness reflects the compromised silver standards common to smaller German states still rationalizing their coinage before the broader monetary conventions of the 1830s forced greater uniformity.

William I died in 1821, making this a short terminal issue of his reign.