Charles Theodor inherited Bavaria in 1777 despite being deeply unpopular there — he was already Elector of the Palatinate, had no legitimate heirs from his Bavarian line, and famously attempted to exchange the entire territory for the Austrian Netherlands in 1785, a scheme thwarted only by Prussian opposition and the formation of the Fürstenbund. His Bavarian subjects never warmed to him. This thaler was struck three years before his death, during a reign spent largely at his beloved Mannheim and Munich courts rather than governing with any particular energy.
The 1790 date places this issue in the final years before the revolutionary upheavals that would reshape every German electorate within a decade.
Charles Theodor inherited Bavaria in 1777 despite being deeply unpopular there — he was already Elector of the Palatinate, had no legitimate heirs from his Bavarian line, and famously attempted to exchange the entire territory for the Austrian Netherlands in 1785, a scheme thwarted only by Prussian opposition and the formation of the Fürstenbund. His Bavarian subjects never warmed to him. This thaler was struck three years before his death, during a reign spent largely at his beloved Mannheim and Munich courts rather than governing with any particular energy.
The 1790 date places this issue in the final years before the revolutionary upheavals that would reshape every German electorate within a decade.