1 Goldgulden - Ernest II

Ernest II of Solms-Lich ruled one of the smaller partitioned branches of the Solms family, whose territorial holdings had been progressively fragmented through inheritance divisions across the sixteenth century. The right to strike gold coinage was a jealously guarded imperial privilege, and for a county of Solms-Lich's modest standing to produce a goldgulden in 1615 reflects either a recently confirmed or actively contested minting concession. The Thirty Years' War was still three years away, but the confessional tensions that would ignite it were already reshaping political allegiances among the Rhenish counts.