5 Kreuzer - Charles Theodor

Charles Theodor ruled the Electorate of the Palatinate from Mannheim, and his billon small-denomination issues of the mid-1760s reflect the chronic silver shortage that plagued the fragmented German states throughout this period. Billon coinage — debased silver alloyed heavily with copper — was the pragmatic solution for fractions too small to strike in fine silver without producing coins too thin to survive handling.

Charles Theodor would later inherit Bavaria in 1777, a succession that proved deeply unpopular and triggered the War of the Bavarian Succession against Frederick the Great.