1/4 Thaler - Max Francis Death of the Grandmaster

Max Franz of Austria, the last active Grand Master of the Teutonic Order to hold meaningful territorial power, died in 1801 having already watched Napoleon dismantle much of the Order's secular holdings in the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss negotiations then underway. This commemorative issue was struck in anticipation of, or response to, his death — a funerary convention the Order had maintained for Grand Masters since the early modern period. Within two years, the 1803 Reichsdeputationshauptschluss formally dissolved what remained of the Order's German estates.