1 Dreier - William Weimar Ducal Palace

Issued under Duke Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar in the immediate aftermath of the Thirty Years' War, this small silver piece entered circulation while the duchy was still absorbing the economic devastation of a conflict that had depopulated significant portions of Thuringia. Wilhelm — an unusually literary ruler who founded the Fruchtbringende Gesellschaft literary society's Weimar circle — maintained a surprisingly active mint operation for a territory of modest means. The Dreier denomination, worth three Pfennig, was the workhorse of everyday local exchange.