Frederick III became Elector of Brandenburg in 1688, just as the Nine Years' War broke out against Louis XIV. The thalers of his early electoral period were struck largely to fund military commitments under the Grand Alliance, and the Brandenburg mint at Königsberg was working under sustained pressure through the early 1690s. Frederick would later bribe his way into royal status — paying Emperor Leopold I handsomely for permission to crown himself King in Prussia in 1701, a title carefully worded to avoid trampling Habsburg sensitivities over the Kingdom of Poland.
Davenport's ST#6214 places this among the specie thalers of his electoral coinage, before the royal title reshuffled the entire Brandenburg numismatic identity.
Frederick III became Elector of Brandenburg in 1688, just as the Nine Years' War broke out against Louis XIV. The thalers of his early electoral period were struck largely to fund military commitments under the Grand Alliance, and the Brandenburg mint at Königsberg was working under sustained pressure through the early 1690s. Frederick would later bribe his way into royal status — paying Emperor Leopold I handsomely for permission to crown himself King in Prussia in 1701, a title carefully worded to avoid trampling Habsburg sensitivities over the Kingdom of Poland.
Davenport's ST#6214 places this among the specie thalers of his electoral coinage, before the royal title reshuffled the entire Brandenburg numismatic identity.