1 Groschen

Magdeburg's civic coinage of 1622 was struck against a backdrop of monetary catastrophe. The Kipper- und Wipperzeit — literally "the tipping and clipping time" — had by this point debased coinage across the Holy Roman Empire so thoroughly that reliable silver pieces from established mints commanded premiums simply for being genuine. Magdeburg, a prosperous trading city on the Elbe with a long tradition of autonomous minting, continued issuing small silver denominations partly to assert civic monetary credibility in a period when counterfeit and debased groschen were nearly indistinguishable from legitimate ones.

The city would be largely destroyed in 1631 during the Thirty Years' War, making intact civic issues from the preceding decade considerably scarcer than mintage patterns alone would suggest.