1 Pfennig - Frederick August I

Frederick August I became Elector of Saxony in 1694 following the death of his brother John George IV — who himself had reigned barely two years. The tiny silver Pfennig issues of these transition years were minted at Dresden and reflect the electoral administration's effort to maintain a functioning small-denomination coinage during a period of rapid political change. Frederick August converted to Catholicism in 1697 to secure the Polish throne, a decision that generated considerable domestic friction in Lutheran Saxony but left the coinage itself largely unaffected in type.