Anhalt-Zerbst is remembered today almost exclusively as the birthplace of Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who left the principality in 1744 to become Catherine the Great of Russia. By 1766, the reigning prince Frederick August was governing a territory so small and financially marginal that copper heller issues like this one were struck more out of sovereign obligation than economic necessity. The principality was dissolved entirely in 1793 when Frederick August died without an heir, its lands partitioned among neighboring Anhalt lines.
Anhalt-Zerbst is remembered today almost exclusively as the birthplace of Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who left the principality in 1744 to become Catherine the Great of Russia. By 1766, the reigning prince Frederick August was governing a territory so small and financially marginal that copper heller issues like this one were struck more out of sovereign obligation than economic necessity. The principality was dissolved entirely in 1793 when Frederick August died without an heir, its lands partitioned among neighboring Anhalt lines.