1/4 Kreutzer - Maria Theresia

Maria Theresia's copper fractional coinage of the late 1770s was largely a response to chronic small-change shortages across the Habsburg hereditary lands, where low-denomination transactions were frequently conducted with badly worn, clipped, or outright counterfeit pieces. The quarter kreutzer sat at the absolute bottom of the official monetary hierarchy — a denomination so small that even its copper production costs were a meaningful concern to the mint administration.

These were struck at a period when Maria Theresia held titular rule jointly with her son Joseph II, though she retained effective authority over domestic policy until her death in 1780.