George William's reign over Brandenburg-Prussia was, by most measures, a catastrophe. He spent the Thirty Years' War oscillating between Swedish and Imperial allegiances, satisfying neither, and his territories were repeatedly pillaged as a result. By 1640, the year of this thaler, he had retreated to Königsberg in Prussia — effectively exiled from his own capital Berlin by Swedish military pressure — where he died in December of that year. This coin is among the last struck in his name.
George William's reign over Brandenburg-Prussia was, by most measures, a catastrophe. He spent the Thirty Years' War oscillating between Swedish and Imperial allegiances, satisfying neither, and his territories were repeatedly pillaged as a result. By 1640, the year of this thaler, he had retreated to Königsberg in Prussia — effectively exiled from his own capital Berlin by Swedish military pressure — where he died in December of that year. This coin is among the last struck in his name.