2 1/2 Silbergroschen - Paul Frederick Emil Leopold III

Lippe was one of the smallest sovereign states in the German Confederation, and its coinage rights were a point of stubborn local pride well into the 1860s. Leopold III issued relatively few types during his long reign, and the 2½ Silbergroschen denomination was itself an awkward transitional value — a concession to the Prussian-dominated Vereinsmünze system that standardized northern German silver coinage after 1857. Billon at .375 fineness placed this piece at the lower boundary of what the convention permitted as silver coinage rather than copper.