⅙ Thaler - Frederick II

1756 was the year Frederick II launched the Seven Years' War with his surprise invasion of Saxony — a war he financed in part through aggressive debasement of the Prussian coinage. This piece predates the worst of that debasement; the .521 fineness here would drop considerably as the war ground on and the mint was increasingly commandeered to fund military operations. By 1759, Saxon and Polish mints captured or leased by Frederick were churning out debased coins bearing his name that Prussians themselves refused to accept at face value.