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3 Gröscher - Frederick William I
| Issuer | Prussia, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1718-1723 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Milled |
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| Obverse description | Armored bust of Frederick William I, King of Prussia, facing right, with flowing wig. The Latin legend FRID : WILH : REX runs along the upper periphery. The portrait is rendered in the baroque style typical of early 18th-century German coinage, with the king depicted in military dress with visible shoulder armor. |
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| Reverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
Frederick William I inherited a Prussian treasury strained by his father's extravagances and responded with aggressive monetary debasement across small denominations. The 3 Gröscher issues of 1718–1723 fall squarely within his broader reform campaign — one driven less by monetary principle than by the need to fund his obsessive military expansion, particularly the buildup of the Potsdam Giants regiment. Billon coinage at this fineness was a practical extraction from the population, whose daily transactions depended entirely on such petty denominations.
KM#165 is known across multiple die varieties tied to specific mint years, and examples from the later end of the run tend to show softer detail attributable to heavily worked dies.