1⁄24 Thaler - Frederick William

Frederick William, the "Great Elector," spent much of 1685 absorbed by the Edict of Potsdam — his November response to Louis XIV's revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which opened Brandenburg's borders to tens of thousands of Huguenot refugees. Small-denomination silver like this 1/24 Thaler circulated precisely among the artisan and merchant classes that Huguenot settlement was actively reshaping that year.