1 Ducat - Maximilian III Joseph Marriage of Maximilian III Joseph and Maria Anna of Sachsen

Maximilian III Joseph had been Elector for less than a year when this ducat was struck — his father Karl Albrecht, briefly Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII, died in January 1745 after a reign that had nearly bankrupted Bavaria through the War of Austrian Succession. The marriage to Maria Anna of Saxony in 1747 was partly a diplomatic calculation, tightening ties with the Wettin dynasty at a moment when Bavaria needed allies it could actually afford.

Wittelsbach marriage ducats of this period were struck in small quantities for distribution at court ceremonies rather than circulation. The Fr#243 attribution places this squarely among the finer gold issues of the electorate's mid-century output.