5 Thalers - William I

Hesse-Cassel had spent the Napoleonic years in a complicated position — Elector Wilhelm I was driven into exile after Napoleon dissolved the electorate in 1806 and folded it into the Kingdom of Westphalia under Jérôme Bonaparte. His return in 1813, following the French collapse after Leipzig, prompted a resumption of coinage that carried unmistakable political weight. This 1814 piece is catalogued as a pattern (Pn38), meaning it almost certainly never entered circulation.

The Divo/S and Schlumberger references both treat this as a presentation or trial striking, and surviving examples are accordingly few.