Post Your Kingdom Of Poland Coins By Monarch 1587 - 1795

The reign of Poland's next sovereign was the beginning of the end of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth as a sovereign state.

In a close vote, Friedrich August, Elector of Saxony, was elected king following the death of Jan Sobieski in 1696. From a numismatic viewpoint, the first coins issued for Poland were minted in 1698 in Leipzig with the traditional title: Augustus II, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (REX POL M D L). The next issues, in 1702 use the title King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania and Elector of Saxony (REX POL M D LIT & ELECT SAX). Coins issued for Lithuania are rare, having only been minted in 1706 and 1707 (only the 1706 6 groschen shows up at auction). Coins of Saxony from his reign are usually cross-referenced in the Polish catalogs since he jointly held the crowns of both (so, feel free to post Saxony coins of Friedrich Augustus!)

His reign would see the occupation of Poland by Sweden in the disastrous Great Northern War, leading to his being deposed in 1706. As Sweden's fortunes turned for the worse in favor of Russia, he was returned to the throne in 1709 in an election engineered by the Russian crown.

Here is a 1702 szostak/6 groschen, Leipzig mint, Kop. 2011.

I only have a handful of Polish coins from the 18th Century. Here is a 1/2 Grosza minted in Krakow and dated 1768 AD.

I think that these are my last coins for this thread: a trio of Grosz, minted in 1778, 1787, and 1789 AD. They are attributed as Kopicki 2207, 2217, and 2221 respectively.









Thanks to @tdz for creating this thread and to everyone who participated. I've definitely learned a bunch along the way!

I realize that I am a week late to the party here, but the OP mentioned Silesia, and I did not see that introduced in the thread.

Here is a Augustus III who is also apparently known as Friederick Augustus II.



I have a 1768 Saxony Elector Thaler with Frid August, but I believe this is a different person.

A bit more on Poland's confusing 18th century history ...

We've seen some coins of the two Saxon kings, Augustus II, and his son Augustus III. But their reigns were far from smooth and continuous.

In the first years of the 18th century, Augustus II, allied with Russia and Denmark, lost a series of battles to Sweden's Charles XII, resulting eventually in Augustus' abdication in favor of Stanislaw I Leszczynski, the chosen of Charles of Sweden.
The tide soon turned AGAINST the Swedes, though, who were evicted by the Russians in 1709, with the restoration of Augustus II.
On Augustus's death in 1733, the Polish parliament elected Stanislaw to the throne again, triggering the War of the Polish Succession among the various nations who had an interest in the Polish crown (France, Hapsburg Austria, Prussia, Russia). According to the terms of the Peace of Vienna (1738), Stanislaw left Poland and was given the Duchy of Lorraine (which had just been conquered by France); the House of Lorraine in turn was given rule over Tuscany ... All as a prelude to the carving up of Poland a generation later.

Stanislaw issued no coins in either Poland or Lorraine.
But one of my few pieces of exonumia is this large bronze medal from 1755 designed by Saint-Urbain with Stanislaw's image obverse:

I think those were very turbulent times in Poland. Under the previous (Saxon) king, August II, most of the coins for Poland were minted in Leipzig and Dresden. The Krakow and Bromberg mints were not coining at all. There was only a trickle from the Vilnius and Danzig mints. Maybe Stanislaw's position was never stable enough to re-start the Polish mints?




One thing I like about late medieval and Renaissance coins is that we can follow the European fashions in armor, hair styles, etc. through those centuries. Yes, those long, flowing locks (as wigs) began showing up with Louis XIII of France in the mid 1600s, and continued through most of the 18th century. And funny that you show Louis XIV: his son (Louis XV) would marry Marie Leszczynska, the daughter of Stanislaw!

Since you bumped it, I just happened to get 3 very worn Polish/Lithuanian coins in an auction lot yesterday.

I've done my best to attribute them, and I appreciate being corrected if I am wrong.