(sold for $49.0)

1690, Saxony-Eisenach, John George II. Silver 2/3 Thaler (Gulden) Coin. aXF!

Mint Year: 1690 Mint Place: Bautzen Ruler (Elector): John George II. Mint Place: Dresden (Germany) Denomination: 2/3 Thaler (Gulden) Reference: Davenport 842, KM-20. R!  Mint Official: Heinrich Christian Mueller (HCM, 1689-1690) Condition: Crudely struck as usual with weakness of strike due to an uneven planchet, mint-made planchet-striae and minimal contaact-marks, otherwise about XF! Diameter: 38mm Weight: 16.26gm Material: Silver

Obverse: Armored and draped bust of John George II right. Legend: IOH . GEORG . D : G . D . SAX . I . C . M . A & M?   Reverse: Ducal cap on composite coat-of-arms, flanked by sprays. Date (16-90) split in fields, fractional thaler value (2/3) in oval frame below. Legend: IVSTITIA - PIETATE & / H.C. (2/3) M (privy mark: crossed hooks)

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Johann Georg II of Saxony (b. Dresden, 31 May 1613 - d. Freiberg, 22 August 1680), was an Elector of Saxony from 1656 to 1680.

He was the third (fourth in order of birth) but eldest surviving son of the Elector Johann Georg I of Saxony and Magdalene Sybille of Prussia, his second spouse.

Johann Georg succeeded his father as Elector when he died on 8 October 1656.

His reign was marked by the economic reconstruction of Saxony after the Thirty Years' War. The economy animated itself slowly again, to which established and also new trades and manufacture contributed (textile industry, promotion of hard coal and glass, among   other things). The silver extracted from his mountains filled the empty   arcs of the Electorate, and the Leipzig Trade Fair gained new income. Also the bohemian Exulanten (1654) contributed new income to the economics.

Thanks to duke Wilhelm of Saxe-Weimar, Johann Georg was accepted into the Fruitbearing Society (1658).

In 1657 he made an arrangement with his three brothers with the   object of preventing disputes over their separate territories, and in   1664 he entered into friendly relations with Louis XIV.   He received money from the French king, but the existence of a strong   anti-French party in Saxony induced him occasionally to respond to the   overtures of the emperor Leopold I.

The elector's primary interests were not in politics, but in music and art. He adorned Dresden,   which under him became the musical centre of Germany; welcoming foreign   musicians and others he gathered around him a large and splendid court,   and his capital was the constant scene of musical and other festivals.   His enormous expenditure compelled him in 1661 to grant greater control   over monetary matters to the estates, a step which laid the foundation   of the later system of finance in Saxony. Also, his government activity   was inferior in the development of the Absolutism and a Standing army in comparison with Bohemia and Prussia.

In Dresden on 13 November 1638 Johann Georg married Magdalene Sibylle of Brandenburg-Bayreuth. They had three children: