1/4 Stüber - Frederick Alexander

Wied-Neuwied was a small Rhenish county whose ruling house exercised independent minting rights under the Holy Roman Empire — a privilege jealously maintained despite the county's modest size and resources. By the mid-eighteenth century, such petty coinage from minor German territories served local exchange needs that larger imperial or electoral issues simply didn't reach. Frederick Alexander ruled from 1737 to 1791, an unusually long tenure for so small a lordship, and copper fractional issues like this one were struck in limited quantities, making survivors in any respectable condition genuinely scarce.