32 Pfennigs / 8 Groschen / 10 Kreuzers - Frederick August

Anhalt-Zerbst occupies an outsized place in 18th-century history relative to its negligible size — it was the birthplace of Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst, who left for Russia in 1744 and became Catherine the Great. By 1764, when this coin was struck, her father Frederick August had been dead for eleven years; the principality was ruled by her brother Friedrich August, whose reign was marked by chronic financial difficulty and a tendency to debase the coinage. The triple denomination struck into this piece — simultaneously valued in Pfennigs, Groschen, and Kreuzers — reflects the monetary chaos of the fragmented Holy Roman Empire, where a coin crossing a nearby border required an entirely different reckoning.