1 Goldgulden - Francis Louis of Erthal

Francis Louis von Erthal served simultaneously as Prince-Bishop of both Würzburg and Bamberg from 1779 until his death in 1795, an accumulation of ecclesiastical authority that was already anachronistic by the time this gulden was struck. The Holy Roman Empire was visibly fracturing — the French Revolution had begun by 1789, and secular pressure on the prince-bishoprics of Franconia would culminate in their dissolution within a decade of this coin's last minting date. These gulden were among the final gold issues of an institution that ceased to exist in 1803 under Napoleonic reorganization.