2 Groschen - John Ernest IV Death

John Ernest IV died in January 1729 after a reign of just four years, leaving Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to his younger brother Franz Josias. Memorial coinage of this type — struck in the year of death for a ruling duke — was a well-established Ernestine tradition, functioning as much as dynastic advertisement as mourning piece. These issues were distributed among courtiers and often saw little genuine circulation, which partly explains why survivors frequently retain sharper detail than comparable currency strikes of the period.