10 Thalers - Ernest August

Ernest August, Duke of Cumberland, became King of Hannover in 1837 only because Hanoverian succession law barred women from the throne — severing a personal union with Britain that had lasted 123 years when Victoria acceded there. His early gold coinage, including this issue, appeared against a backdrop of immediate constitutional crisis: within weeks of taking power, he suspended the liberal constitution of 1833, an act that prompted the famous protest of the Göttingen Seven, seven professors who publicly objected and were promptly dismissed and exiled.

The Friedberg 1171 attribution places this squarely in the first major gold series of his reign.