2 Albus - Louis VIII

Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt was a committed military entrepreneur who leased his troops to foreign powers — most profitably to France — generating the revenues that funded his court and coinage alike. The 2 Albus denomination sat at the practical lower end of the silver series, the kind of coin that moved through market transactions rather than treasury accounts. By the 1740s the Albus had been a unit of account in the Rhenish lands for centuries, its purchasing power quietly eroded by successive debasements across the region's fragmented minting authorities.

KM#179 is a short-lived type, struck across no more than five years of Louis's reign before his death in 1768 brought a recoinage under his successor.