Ernest Louis issued this three-mark piece to mark the tercentenary of the Ernestine line — or more precisely, the 1910 issue commemorates the 400th anniversary of the University of Giessen, founded in 1607 by Landgrave Ludwig V. Ernest Louis himself had a complicated relationship with German imperial politics, having been forced to abdicate in 1918 after backing the wrong factions one too many times.
Hesse-Darmstadt's commemorative coinage under the empire was tightly regulated by the 1871 imperial coinage law, which permitted German states to strike commemoratives only under specific petitions to Berlin.
Ernest Louis issued this three-mark piece to mark the tercentenary of the Ernestine line — or more precisely, the 1910 issue commemorates the 400th anniversary of the University of Giessen, founded in 1607 by Landgrave Ludwig V. Ernest Louis himself had a complicated relationship with German imperial politics, having been forced to abdicate in 1918 after backing the wrong factions one too many times.
Hesse-Darmstadt's commemorative coinage under the empire was tightly regulated by the 1871 imperial coinage law, which permitted German states to strike commemoratives only under specific petitions to Berlin.