1 Groschen - John George II

Mansfeld-Eisleben's mid-seventeenth century groschen coinage falls squarely within the Thirty Years' War, a conflict that devastated the county's famous copper and silver mining operations in the Harz foothills. John George II ruled a territory already exhausted by decades of military occupation, forced contributions, and the collapse of regional metal markets. That any silver coinage was struck here between 1641 and 1647 reflects less prosperity than desperation — small denominations keeping local commerce moving while the broader imperial monetary system fractured around it.