1 Frederick d'Or - Frederick II

The Frederick d'Or was introduced in 1750 as Prussia's prestige gold coinage, timed deliberately to project fiscal confidence during Frederick II's aggressive territorial expansion following the First and Second Silesian Wars. The years bracketing this piece — 1755 to 1763 — span the Seven Years' War entire, during which Frederick's treasury came under extraordinary strain financing campaigns against Austria, Russia, France, and Sweden simultaneously.

Prussian mint output during this period was partly sustained by debasing silver coinage for wartime expenditure, a policy Frederick later described with striking candor in his own political writings. The gold Frederick d'Or was kept to standard, preserving its utility as a diplomatic and mercantile instrument even as the epurations silver circulated around it.