1 Schilling - Frederick William II

Frederick William II inherited Prussian finances badly strained by Frederick the Great's Seven Years' War expenditures, and the small billon schilling issues of his reign reflect ongoing pressure to minimize silver content in subsidiary coinage. At .118 fineness, these sit barely above copper token territory — a deliberate policy rather than a debasement scandal, quietly normalized across the smaller denominations while full silver thalers maintained their standard.

The 1788 date falls just two years into his reign, before the costly Russo-Swedish and Polish entanglements of the early 1790s further complicated Prussian monetary management.