20 Kreuzers - Ernest Frederick

Ernest Frederick ruled Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld during one of the duchy's more financially strained periods, and coinage from 1765 reflects the broader fiscal pressures bearing down on the smaller Ernestine duchies in the aftermath of the Seven Years' War. The war had ended just two years prior, leaving many of the minor German states scrambling to rebuild depleted treasuries while simultaneously honoring pre-war debt obligations.

Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld itself was the product of a 1735 inheritance that united two previously separate lines — a dynastic consolidation that did little to solve the chronic underfunding that plagued the house throughout Ernest Frederick's tenure.