1⁄96 Thaler - Frederick III

Frederick III of Schleswig-Holstein-Gottorp was only ten years old when this coin was struck, ruling under the regency of his mother Maria of the Palatinate-Simmern. The 1⁄96 thaler denomination — a tiny fraction coin — was a product of the Kipper und Wipperzeit, the catastrophic currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623, during which mints across German territories issued vast quantities of small, underweight silver fractions to exploit arbitrage in metal values.

Gottorp's participation in this debased coinage was politically convenient but short-lived. The crisis collapsed under its own weight by 1623.