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1/3 Thaler - Frederick William

Issuer Brandenburg-Prussia, State of
Year 1667-1670
Type Standard circulation coin
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Obverse description Draped bust of Frederick William, Elector of Brandenburg, facing right, with long flowing wig in the baroque style. The legend encircles the bust reading FRID WILH D G M BR EL CR. The denomination mark 1/3 appears in a cartouche at the base of the portrait, below the truncation. The field is plain and the coin is struck within a beaded border.
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Reverse script Latin
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Additional information

Frederick William — the "Great Elector" — was in the middle of consolidating Hohenzollern authority over his scattered territories when this denomination circulated. The 1/3 Thaler emerged as part of the broader Leipzig Foot coinage convention of 1667, which standardized silver fractions across much of the Empire in a deliberate attempt to suppress the flood of debased small change that had plagued northern German trade since the Kipper- und Wipperzeit crisis of the 1620s. Brandenburg's participation was partly political — aligning with the convention signaled imperial cooperation while Frederick William quietly built the administrative machinery that would outlast every other German principality.

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