1⁄24 Thaler

Brunswick's 1/24 Thaler issues of 1620–1621 fall squarely within the Kipper und Wipperzeit — the catastrophic debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire as mints raced to produce underweight, debased small silver to extract seigniorage profit during the financial chaos preceding the Thirty Years' War. City mints, imperial mints, and petty lordships alike flooded circulation with fractional coins whose actual silver content bore little relation to their face value. Brunswick's city mint was no exception.

The crisis collapsed abruptly around 1622 when the debased coins were repudiated wholesale, wiping out ordinary savers who held them.