3 Pfennig - Frederick I

Frederick I was crowned King *in* Prussia in 1701 — pointedly not King *of* Prussia, a distinction forced by diplomatic compromise with the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, who refused to recognize a fully sovereign Prussian monarchy over imperial territory. These small billon pieces were among the first coins struck under the new royal title, issued in the opening years of a reign that had spent decades and enormous sums engineering the elevation from Elector to King.

The .125 fineness places this squarely in the debased petty coinage of the Northern German states, where Kipper und Wipper-era degradation of small denominations had never fully recovered.