1 Heller - William II

Hesse-Cassel's small copper coinage of this period was struck under Elector William II, whose reign was among the most politically turbulent in the electorate's history. He spent much of the 1830s in open conflict with his own estates over constitutional rights, eventually fleeing Cassel in 1831 when liberal opposition forced a new constitution on him. These hellers predate that crisis, circulating through a region already tense with post-Napoleonic reform pressures and the lingering administrative reshuffling imposed by the Congress of Vienna.