1/4 Thaler - Ferdinand II of Tyrol

Ferdinand II ruled Tyrol as an autonomous archduke from 1564 until his death in 1595, operating the Hall mint with unusual independence from Vienna. Hall in Tirol had been one of the most technically advanced minting operations in the Holy Roman Empire since the late 15th century — it was here that the large-diameter Guldengroschen format was pioneered in the 1480s, directly ancestral to the thaler series.

The fractional thaler denominations issued under Ferdinand served the practical demands of Alpine trade routes connecting Italy and the German lands. MT#247 places this piece within a series produced across nearly two full decades of his reign, meaning die marriages vary considerably across the emission period.