½ Thaler - Ferdinand III Kuttenberg

Ferdinand III inherited the Bohemian crown under the terms that followed the catastrophic defeat of the Protestant estates at White Mountain in 1620, and by 1641 the Thirty Years' War still ground on across the empire. Kuttenberg — Kutná Hora — had been one of Central Europe's premier silver mining centers since the medieval period, and the mint there drew directly on Bohemian ore even as the war disrupted bullion flows elsewhere. The city had changed hands and suffered repeated military occupations in the decades prior.

KM#474 is among the less frequently encountered Kuttenberg half thaler types from Ferdinand's reign, the mint's output fluctuating sharply year to year depending on military requisitions and silver availability.