1 Frederick d'Or - Frederick William IV

The Frederick d'Or had been Prussia's prestige gold coinage since Frederick the Great formalized the type in 1741, and by the time Frederick William IV's effigy appeared on it a century later, the denomination carried considerable dynastic weight. Frederick William IV himself was a deeply conservative monarch who rejected the Frankfurt Parliament's offer of a constitutional crown in 1849 — he famously refused to accept a crown "from the gutter." His coins, by contrast, circulated without controversy.

KM#442 spans eleven years and multiple die marriages. The earlier strikes of the series are generally considered superior in execution to those of the final years.