1 Thaler - Frederick August I Presence of King Frederick William of Prussia

This thaler commemorates the visit of Frederick William I of Prussia to Dresden in 1728 — a diplomatically loaded encounter between two of the most powerful Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire. The meeting was partly ceremonial, partly political, and took place against a backdrop of ongoing negotiations over Prussian and Saxon territorial interests in the Empire. Frederick August I, as Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, had every reason to stage the visit with maximum pomp; commemorative thalers were the press releases of their day.

Frederick William I was notoriously hostile to extravagance, making Dresden's baroque excess an almost calculated provocation. He attended regardless.