12 Mariengroschen - Rudolph August and Anthony Ulrich

Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel operated under a peculiar dual-rulership from 1685, when Rudolph August invited his younger brother Anthony Ulrich to share governance — an arrangement born less of constitutional necessity than of Rudolph August's preference for hunting and court life over administration. Anthony Ulrich, the more politically ambitious and culturally active of the two, effectively drove policy and patronage while his elder brother held nominal seniority. Coins issued under the condominium name both rulers, though the balance of actual authority was never equal.

The Mariengroschen denomination takes its name from the Virgin Mary imagery historically associated with Lower Saxon coinage, a naming convention that persisted long after the religious iconography had faded from the types themselves.