Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel is best remembered not as a numismatic subject but as the landgrave who leased roughly 17,000 of his subjects as soldiers to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War — a transaction that began in earnest in 1776, just one year after this ducat was struck. The substantial subsidies paid by Britain for those troops flowed directly into the Hessian treasury, funding court expenditure and coinage alike.
The "Edergold" designation is specific: these ducats were struck from gold extracted from the Eder River valley, a localized source that gave the issue both its name and a slightly distinct alloy character traceable to regional placer deposits.
Frederick II of Hesse-Cassel is best remembered not as a numismatic subject but as the landgrave who leased roughly 17,000 of his subjects as soldiers to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War — a transaction that began in earnest in 1776, just one year after this ducat was struck. The substantial subsidies paid by Britain for those troops flowed directly into the Hessian treasury, funding court expenditure and coinage alike.
The "Edergold" designation is specific: these ducats were struck from gold extracted from the Eder River valley, a localized source that gave the issue both its name and a slightly distinct alloy character traceable to regional placer deposits.