1 Dreier - John Ernest Death of Eleonora Dorothea, Widow of William IV

Eleonora Dorothea of Anhalt-Dessau died in March 1665, having outlived her husband Duke William IV of Saxe-Weimar by nearly two decades. Mourning coinages of this type — struck in the smallest silver denominations — were a distinctly German Protestant tradition, issued as much for distribution at funeral ceremonies as for any numismatic purpose. Most were spent or lost within a generation, which explains why minor memorial issues from the smaller Thuringian duchies survive in such thin numbers today.