3 Gröscher - Frederick II

Frederick II debased Prussian silver coinage aggressively during the Seven Years' War to finance his campaigns, but this 1754 piece predates that crisis — it was struck under the monetary standards established earlier in his reign before the full weight of wartime fiscal pressure forced successive reductions in silver content. The billon composition here was already a concession to cost, but the worst debasements came after 1757, when Prussian mints — and opportunistically leased Saxon facilities — were churning out coins of dramatically reduced fineness.