1⁄48 Thaler - Frederick II

These small billon pieces were struck during the Seven Years' War buildup and opening campaigns, a period when Frederick the Great was simultaneously fighting Austria, France, Russia, Saxony, and Sweden while trying to keep Prussian coinage credible enough to fund it all. He largely failed at the latter. Frederick systematically debased Prussian silver throughout the conflict, farming out mint operations to contractors — most notoriously the Jewish financier Veitel Heine Ephraim — who extracted profit by pushing silver content ever lower. The 1⁄48 Thaler sat at the bottom of this deteriorating system.