1 Pfennig - Frederick III

Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg was one of the smaller Ernestine duchies produced by the relentless subdivision of the Wettin line, and by Frederick III's reign it controlled barely enough territory to justify its own coinage. These copper pfennigs were struck precisely because the duchy needed to assert fiscal presence in daily transactions that silver simply couldn't reach. Frederick III died in 1772, but this issue ceased well before then — the Seven Years' War disrupted minting schedules across the smaller German states, and several Ernestine duchies suspended or curtailed copper production between 1756 and 1763.