Christian Ulrich von Bernstadt was the founder of the Bernstadt line of the fragmented Württemberg-Oels duchy, a principality so thoroughly subdivided by inheritance that its coinage frequently served dynastic commemoration as much as any commercial purpose. This death piece — a Sterbemünze in the German tradition — was struck to mark his passing in 1680, part of a mourning issue series that smaller German courts used to assert hereditary legitimacy and princely prestige in the fractious post-Westphalian political order. The Friedberg reference traces this specific fraction to a tiny production run.
Christian Ulrich von Bernstadt was the founder of the Bernstadt line of the fragmented Württemberg-Oels duchy, a principality so thoroughly subdivided by inheritance that its coinage frequently served dynastic commemoration as much as any commercial purpose. This death piece — a Sterbemünze in the German tradition — was struck to mark his passing in 1680, part of a mourning issue series that smaller German courts used to assert hereditary legitimacy and princely prestige in the fractious post-Westphalian political order. The Friedberg reference traces this specific fraction to a tiny production run.