RR-, Augustus III Sas, Shellac 1749, SAMPLE

In 1749, after a break of several decades, Minister Henryk Brühl decided to mint Polish shekels again. The decision was prompted by a shortage of pass coinage on the market, and at the same time stemmed the influx of poor-quality coinage shekels from Prussia. The first trial, test batch was minted in Dresden, and, as Gumowski writes in "Gubin and its Mints," "the sent [shekels] to Warsaw found a very good reception among the Polish public." In the aftermath, copper mints were opened only for minting shekels and pennies. A rare first trial year of minting.