3 Kreuzers - Louis II

Hesse-Darmstadt's small silver coinage of this period existed in a German monetary patchwork that would not be rationalized until the Zollverein monetary conventions of 1838 and, more decisively, 1857. Louis II ruled the grand duchy from 1830 until his death in 1848, and his early years on the throne coincided with the post-Napoleonic reorganization of Hessian finances — the duchy had emerged from the French period with significant territorial gains but equally significant administrative debts.

The billon fineness here is notably low even by Kreuzer standards of the period.