Talar Targowicki - Stanisław August Poniatowski Warszawa mint

By 1793, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was in its death throes. This coin was struck the same year as the Second Partition, when Russia and Prussia carved off roughly half the remaining Commonwealth territory in a deal Stanisław August was coerced into ratifying under Russian military occupation of Warsaw. A copper talar of this weight was an unusual denomination for the period — the talar was traditionally a silver coin, and issuing it in copper reflects the fiscal desperation of a state that had already lost its monetary coherence along with its borders.

The Targowica Confederation, the pro-Russian noble faction that gave this issue its name, had invited Russian intervention a year earlier.