11/2 Pfennig - Ernest Frederick

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld was one of the more financially strained of the Ernestine duchies, and small copper issues like this one were minted as much out of administrative necessity as fiscal policy — the fractional denominations filling gaps left by chronic shortages of silver in circulation. Ernest Frederick ruled from 1764 until his death in 1800, a reign long enough to produce several copper series but rarely stable enough to mint them consistently. The Grasser reference places this squarely in the documented local coinage, though surviving examples in unworn condition are uncommon given the coin's obvious workhorse role in everyday Thuringian commerce.