3 Heller - William IX

William IX came to power in Hesse-Cassel in 1785 having inherited not just a landgraviate but an extraordinarily profitable subsidiary industry: the lease of Hessian troops to foreign powers. The subsidies from Britain for the American Revolutionary War had already made his predecessor Friedrich II enormously wealthy, and William continued the practice. The copper coinage of his reign was thus backed by one of the more solvent minor German states of the period, funded in no small part by mercenary contracts.

He would later be elevated to Elector in 1803, making these earlier issues, struck under the landgrave title, a distinct phase of his long rule.