3 Heller - William VIII

Hesse-Cassel was deeply enmeshed in the Seven Years' War during precisely these two years, and Landgrave William VIII was leasing tens of thousands of Hessian troops to allied powers — a revenue stream that paradoxically kept the state solvent while its domestic copper coinage circulated among a population bearing the full burden of wartime disruption. Small-denomination copper issues from this period were often struck hastily and in quantity to meet local transaction demand as silver drained toward military expenditure.

William VIII died in February 1760, meaning any piece dated 1761 was struck under his successor Frederick II, though the dies retained his name through the transition.