Frederick William IV ascended the Prussian throne in 1840 following the death of his father Frederick William III, and this copper issue belongs to his earliest regal coinage — struck before the constitutional tensions of the late 1840s forced significant policy shifts. The 1841–1842 window was narrow; production of this type was soon superseded by revised coinage driven by the monetary harmonization pressures of the Deutscher Zollverein, which pushed member states toward greater denominational consistency.
Schrötter references two die variants across this type, catalogued at 180 and 181.
Frederick William IV ascended the Prussian throne in 1840 following the death of his father Frederick William III, and this copper issue belongs to his earliest regal coinage — struck before the constitutional tensions of the late 1840s forced significant policy shifts. The 1841–1842 window was narrow; production of this type was soon superseded by revised coinage driven by the monetary harmonization pressures of the Deutscher Zollverein, which pushed member states toward greater denominational consistency.
Schrötter references two die variants across this type, catalogued at 180 and 181.