41/2 Pfennig - Rudolph August and Anthony Ulrich

Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel's fractional silver coinage of this period reflects the chronic small-denomination shortage plaguing German territories in the early eighteenth century, when rulers routinely issued awkward fractions to satisfy local commerce that larger imperial coins couldn't serve. The joint reign of Rudolph August and his younger brother Anthony Ulrich — unusual even by the standards of dynastic co-rule — lasted from 1685 until Rudolph August's death in 1704, making 1703 one of the final issues bearing both names.

Anthony Ulrich would go on to convert to Catholicism the following year, a move with significant dynastic consequences in a staunchly Lutheran territory.