11/2 Thaler - Anthony Ulrich Conversion to Catholicism

Anthony Ulrich converted to Catholicism in 1710 at the age of 78, a move that scandalized Protestant Germany and was widely read as a political maneuver to secure imperial favor in Vienna rather than any genuine spiritual conviction. As Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, his conversion threatened the confessional integrity of a principality whose Lutheran identity had been legally entrenched since the Peace of Westphalia. This thaler was struck to commemorate that conversion — an unusual choice, given that most of his subjects regarded the event as something between an embarrassment and a betrayal.

He died two years later, in 1714, having never persuaded his heir to follow him into Rome.