4 Schillings - George II

Saxe-Lauenburg had ceased to exist as an independent duchy in 1689, when the line died out with Julius Franz. The territory passed to Hanover, and when George I inherited the British crown in 1714, Saxe-Lauenburg came along as a subordinate possession of the Hanoverian domains. Coins issued under George II in his capacity as Duke of Saxe-Lauenburg are therefore a constitutional curiosity — struck for a duchy that had no ruling house of its own for nearly half a century before these pieces were made.