1/4 Thaler

Goslar's mining wealth, drawn almost entirely from the Rammelsberg ore deposits, made it one of the few Free Imperial Cities capable of sustained silver coinage in the late sixteenth century. By 1581, however, the city was already in financial decline — the Rammelsberg's upper silver-rich veins were largely exhausted, and Goslar was losing its long dispute with the Dukes of Brunswick over territorial rights to the mines themselves. This quarter thaler was struck into that contraction.