6 Pfennig - Francis Josias

Francis Josias ruled Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld during a period when the duchy's finances were perpetually strained — a chronic condition among the fragmented Ernestine line duchies, where inheritance partitions had repeatedly carved viable territories into barely-solvent ones. Billon coinage of this type was the fiscal workaround: debased enough to stretch silver reserves, heavy enough to pass in local markets.

The 1746–1750 window coincides with the latter years of the War of the Austrian Succession, during which Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld supplied troops under Imperial obligation.