Henry XXII held the princedom of Reuss-Greiz from 1859 until his death in 1902, making this two-year issue one of the last coinages struck under his authority. The Reuss family's peculiar naming convention — every male in both the Elder and Younger lines was named Heinrich, numbered sequentially from the start of each century — meant that by 1899 the count had reached XXII. German imperial law permitted the smaller states to strike silver two-mark pieces bearing their own rulers, a privilege that produced short-run issues like this one with mintages dwarfed by Prussian output.
Henry XXII held the princedom of Reuss-Greiz from 1859 until his death in 1902, making this two-year issue one of the last coinages struck under his authority. The Reuss family's peculiar naming convention — every male in both the Elder and Younger lines was named Heinrich, numbered sequentially from the start of each century — meant that by 1899 the count had reached XXII. German imperial law permitted the smaller states to strike silver two-mark pieces bearing their own rulers, a privilege that produced short-run issues like this one with mintages dwarfed by Prussian output.