1 Thaler 'Memorial Thaler'

This piece commemorates the Fürstentag of August 1863 — a congress of German princes convened in Frankfurt by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, intended to reform the German Confederation and reassert Habsburg leadership over the fragmented states. It was a last serious attempt to prevent Prussian dominance of German unification. Bismarck effectively killed it by persuading King Wilhelm I of Prussia to refuse attendance, leaving the congress without legitimacy.

Frankfurt's days as a free city were numbered. Prussia annexed it outright in 1866 following the Austro-Prussian War, ending over five centuries of municipal independence — and terminating Frankfurt's coining rights permanently.