1 Pfennig - Frederick II

Frederick II's late-reign copper-silver issues were produced under a monetary system badly distorted by the Seven Years' War, during which Frederick had deliberately debased Prussian coinage to finance military expenditure — at points reducing silver content so aggressively that contemporaries called the policy "Ephraimites," after the Jewish mint contractor Veitel Heine Ephraim who managed the debasement operation. By 1771, Prussia was slowly rehabilitating its currency, though small denomination billon remained stubbornly low in fineness. The .094 silver figure reflects that incomplete recovery rather than any fresh debasement.