Description

George III. 1760-1820. Silver Medal 1764, 27.92 g. Prince Frederick elected Bishop of Osnabrück. By T. Pingo. Britannia seated, leaning against the British shield, at a table on which rests a mitre and crozier. SPES PVBLICA. Rv. Inscription in eight lines: ANNVENTE GEORGIO TERTIO M . BRIT . FR . H . R . F . D . D . BRVNSW . ET LVNEB . S . R . I . A . TH . ET ELECT . PATRE ET REGE OPT . POSTVLATVS EPISC . XXVII FEBRVARII. FREDERICVS M . BRIT . PR . EPISCOPVS OSNABRVG . D . BR . ET LVN. Plain edge. 42.7 mm. Eimer 706a. BHM 90. Brockmann 1044. Kennepohl 388. Vorzüglich / Extremely Fine. Winziger Randfehler / Tiny edge flaw.

From the auction Gerhard Hirsch Nachf. 224, Munich, November 2002, lot 1446.

Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany (16 August 1763 - 5 January 1827) was the second son of George III, King of the United Kingdom and Hanover, and his consort Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. A soldier by profession, from 1764 to 1803 he was Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück in the Holy Roman Empire. From the death of his father in 1820 until his own death in 1827, he was the heir presumptive to his elder brother, George IV, in both the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the Kingdom of Hanover.

On 27 February 1764, when Prince Frederick was six months old, he became Prince-Bishop of Osnabrück upon the death of Clemens August of Bavaria. (The Peace of Westphalia stipulated that the city of Osnabrück would alternate between Catholic and Protestant rulers, with the Protestant bishops to be elected from the cadets of the House of Brunswick-Luneburg.)