(sold for $113.0)

1766, Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Frederick Christian. Large Silver Thaler Coin. VF+

Mint Year: 1766 (ES) Denomination: Thaler Mint Place: Bayersdorf (B) Reference: Davenport 2042, KM-252. Engravers: Eberhard & Schmiedhammer (E-S) Condition: Weight-adjusting marks and a few scratches in obverse, otherwise a nice VF+ Weight: 27.84gm Diameter: 41mm Material: Silver

Obverse: Armoured and draped bust of Frederick Christian, wearing cross order right. Legend: FRID . CHRIST . D . G . M . B . D . P . ET . S . B . N . Reverse: Crowned composite arms of Brandenburg-Bayreuth, supported by lions. Mint letter in foliage frame below (B) splitting date. Legend: ZEHEN EINE FEINE MARK / E - 17 (B) 66 - S

In 1655 Bayreuth was partitioned into Brandenburg-Bayreuth and  Brandenburg-Kulmbach, but the lands were reunited in 1726. The last  line of Brandenburg-Bayreuth died out on 20 January 1769 with the death of Margrave Frederick Christian, and Bayreuth passed to Christian Frederick. On 2 December 1791, Christian Frederick sold the sovereignty of his principalities to King Frederick William II of Prussia, and from 28 January 1792 Bayreuth was ruled by Prussian-appointed governors.

Frederick Christian, Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth (b. Weferlingen, 17 July 1708 - d. Bayreuth, 20 January 1769), was a member of the House of Hohenzollern and Margrave of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. He was the youngest of fourteen children born to Margrave Christian Heinrich of Brandenburg-Bayreuth-Kulmbach by his wife, Countess Sophie Christiane of Wolfstein. His father died on 5 April 1708, almost three months before his birth. Besides him, only six of his siblings survived to adulthood: Georg Frederick Karl,  who became Margrave of Bayreuth; Albrecht Wolfgang, who was killed in  battle in 1734; Dorothea Charlotte, Countess of Hohenlohe-Weikersheim,  who died in 1712 after only seven months of marriage; Sophie Magdalene, Queen of Denmark; Frederick Ernst; and Sophie Caroline, Princess of Ostfriesland. Frederick Christian was considered an eccentric, indeed the "black  sheep" of the family. By the time of the death of his cousin Georg  Wilhelm, Margrave of Bayreuth (1726), he lived as a Danish  Lieutenant-general in Wandsbek near Hamburg and was not prepared for any government tasks in the principality of  Bayreuth. He did not exercise his power and left all the control of the  principality to his older brother George Frederick Charles. The death of his nephew Frederick without male issue on (26 February 1763),  however, found him the only male member of the Bayreuth branch of the  family, and, in consequence, the new Margrave of Bayreuth. After his assumption of the government in Bayreuth, Frederick  Christian tried to stabilize the ruined state finances by drastically  reducing the costs of the Bayreuth court. Most artists who had worked  there (among others, Carl von Gontard) went to Berlin to the court of King Frederick the Great. Almost all construction work in the castles and gardens were stopped. Bayreuth sank again into the Provinzialität (Province state).

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