1/4 Thaler - Wolfgang, Louis II, Henry XXI, Albert George and Christoph I

Stolberg's mid-sixteenth century fractional thalers are joint-rule coinages, issued under the collective authority of five counts simultaneously — a product of the Ernestine inheritance customs that left German territories perpetually subdivided among male heirs. The five names on this piece reflect a partition arrangement that would have made unified monetary policy nearly impossible, yet the county managed consistent coinage across nearly a decade.

The Schultze reference places this among a small documented series. Surviving examples are scarce in any grade; Stolberg produced no mint of significant scale, and output volumes were modest even by contemporary county standards.