1 Schilling - Frederick William

Frederick William, the "Great Elector," was consolidating Hohenzollern authority across scattered territories in the late 1650s, and small silver issues like this schilling served the grinding commercial needs of Brandenburg's towns while the elector was occupied with the diplomatic maneuvering that would produce the Treaty of Oliva in 1660 — the agreement that finally ended the Northern Wars and secured Prussian ducal sovereignty free from Polish suzerainty. That treaty fundamentally altered the political footing of the Hohenzollern dynasty.