1 Groschen - Frederick Ulrich

Frederick Ulrich's reign over Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel coincided almost exactly with the opening of the Thirty Years' War, and the small silver coinage of this period reflects the monetary chaos that followed. The Kipper und Wipperzeit — the currency debasement crisis of roughly 1619–1623 — saw dozens of minor German princes and municipal mints aggressively clip and debase their coinage to profit from the resulting arbitrage, flooding the Holy Roman Empire with underweight issues. Whether this particular groschen predates the worst of that debasement or was itself part of it depends heavily on die analysis and assay records that rarely survive for minor Brunswick issues.