The 2/3 Thaler denomination was a Prussian accounting convenience rooted in the old Reichsthaler system, where 2/3 Thaler equaled 16 Groschen — a unit that made commercial transactions across northern German states considerably easier to reconcile. Frederick William II inherited a state whose finances had been strained by the costly War of the Bavarian Succession and compounded the problem through extravagant court spending that left Prussia significantly indebted by his death in 1797.
Issues continuing under his name through 1801 were struck posthumously, authorized under the regnal dating conventions of the period before Frederick William III's coinage reforms took hold.
The 2/3 Thaler denomination was a Prussian accounting convenience rooted in the old Reichsthaler system, where 2/3 Thaler equaled 16 Groschen — a unit that made commercial transactions across northern German states considerably easier to reconcile. Frederick William II inherited a state whose finances had been strained by the costly War of the Bavarian Succession and compounded the problem through extravagant court spending that left Prussia significantly indebted by his death in 1797.
Issues continuing under his name through 1801 were struck posthumously, authorized under the regnal dating conventions of the period before Frederick William III's coinage reforms took hold.