½ Thaler - Ferdinand II Breslau

Ferdinand II issued this coin during the Thirty Years' War while Silesia was one of the most contested territories in Central Europe — Breslau's mint was operating under Habsburg pressure even as Protestant forces under Sweden's Gustavus Adolphus were advancing through the German states. The city itself remained nominally loyal to the Emperor through 1631, but that loyalty was fragile and heavily coerced following Ferdinand's revocation of Silesian Protestant privileges under the Edict of Restitution two years earlier.

Breslau's mint output in this period was partly driven by the need to pay troops. Silver from Bohemian sources funded what was, in effect, a war economy.