1 Pfennig - John Frederick

John Frederick ruled Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt for less than two years — from 1744 until his death in 1767 — but his coinage output was concentrated in a narrow window when copper pfennigs were struck to address a chronic shortage of small change that plagued the minor German principalities throughout the mid-eighteenth century. Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, hemmed in by larger neighbors and economically marginal, depended on such fractional copper issues for everyday commerce while silver coinage drained steadily outward.