20 Kreuzers - Charles Theodor

Charles Theodore inherited Bavaria in 1777 under circumstances that nearly unraveled the electorate entirely — Frederick the Great intervened militarily to block his attempted cession of Lower Bavaria to Austria in the War of the Bavarian Succession. By 1792, the year this piece was struck, Charles Theodore's rule was deeply unpopular; he had no legitimate heirs, governed largely through Austrian influence, and faced a Bavarian population that openly preferred his successor. French Revolutionary forces would render much of this coinage moot within a few years.