
Fredrik I of Sweden ruled that country from 1720 till his death in 1751, but he wasn’t born to be king, and certainly not of Sweden. However, as the eldest son of the Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel, one of the larger German states, he proved to be a rare combination of nobility, intelligence and ambition.
His military career, which would in time take him to Sweden, began in the War of the Spanish Succession. It was during the war he met and married his second wife, Princess Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden, daughter of Karl XI and sister of Karl XII.
As the husband of a Swedish princess, Fredrik went into Swedish service, fighting against Denmark/Norway and gaining the title of Swedish Generalissimus. In 1718 Karl XII died without having produced an heir, and the Swedish throne went to his surviving sister, Ulrika Eleonora. She petitioned for her husband to be made co-regent, much like William and Mary in England, but the Swedish Riksdag did not permit it. They did, however, agree to her abdication and Fredrik’s accession on condition that much of the power of government was transferred to the Riksdag. So, in 1720, the ambitious prince of Hesse-Kassel become the king of Sweden. In 1730, upon the death of his father, he inherited his titles, and that is why we can find coins of Hesse-Kassel with the title King of Sweden ‘Rex Sueciae’.
This 1733 Taler, lustrous and wonderfully toned, bears the title of king of Sweden on the obverse and the German title on the reverse along with his crest, a combination of the royal Swedish and the Hessian. It is rarely offered for sale and will surely appeal to collectors of both Swedish and German coins.
In the March 2025 L. E. Bruun Part II sale, this coin, along with many other Swedish, Swedish possession, Norwegian, German, and of course Danish coins, will be offered. All of them are pieces of history – both the larger history of kings, wars and powers, as well as the smaller history of the coin itself and the collections it has been in. Successful bidders will be able to add themselves to the list of previous owners and become part of the Bruun legacy.