In January 1750, Johann Philipp Graumann was appointed as Frederick's confidential adviser on finance, military affairs, and royal possessions, as well as the Director-General of all mint facilities. Graumann had two main tasks: first, he was to secure the availability of coin silver for the Prussian monetary system; second, he was to eliminate the currency chaos of the Austrian War of Succession and rationalize the Prussian coinage. Prussia adopted a Prussian thaler containing of a Cologne mark of silver, rather than (in use since 1690), probably in the expectation that this realistic coin foot would prevail throughout the empire. In addition, he wanted to compete with the French Louis d'or, which was used all over Germany and the Dutch currency which was used for trading in the Baltic states. Graumann announced that he would be able to achieve high coin seignorage for the state and that Berlin would become the largest exchange center in Central and Northern Europe.