1/4 Thaler - John George II Wechseltaler

John George II of Saxony was an enthusiastic patron of the arts and a compulsive spender, and his court at Dresden became one of the most extravagant in the Empire — financed in no small part by the Saxon silver mines of the Erzgebirge. The term Wechseltaler designates a coin struck for exchange or presentational purposes rather than workaday circulation, a distinction that explains the disproportionate survival rate of these pieces in better grades.

By 1670, the Albertinian mint was operating under the supervision of the Dresden Münze, with output tightly controlled following monetary reforms tied to the Leipzig Convention of 1668.