Regensburg's civic coinage of the early 1620s was produced under the mounting financial strain of the Thirty Years' War, which had begun in 1618 and was already disrupting trade networks across the Reich. As a Free Imperial City, Regensburg retained the right to strike its own coinage, but the Kipper und Wipper crisis of 1621–1623 had so thoroughly debased small-denomination billon currency across German-speaking lands that municipal issues like this one circulated in an environment of deep monetary distrust. Many cities quietly exploited the chaos to reduce metal content; Regensburg was not exempt from that pressure.
Regensburg's civic coinage of the early 1620s was produced under the mounting financial strain of the Thirty Years' War, which had begun in 1618 and was already disrupting trade networks across the Reich. As a Free Imperial City, Regensburg retained the right to strike its own coinage, but the Kipper und Wipper crisis of 1621–1623 had so thoroughly debased small-denomination billon currency across German-speaking lands that municipal issues like this one circulated in an environment of deep monetary distrust. Many cities quietly exploited the chaos to reduce metal content; Regensburg was not exempt from that pressure.