1 Prague Groschen Counterstamped

Kempten's civic authorities applied counterstamps to Prague groschen as a practical measure of monetary control — a way to authorize foreign silver for local circulation without the expense of a full recoinage. The Prague groschen, struck in enormous quantities under the Bohemian kings from Charles IV onward, flooded trade routes across the Holy Roman Empire throughout the late fourteenth century, and Swabian imperial cities were perpetually negotiating which foreign types to accept and at what rate.

The Krüsy reference places Kempten's counterstamping activity squarely within a period of repeated tension between the city's imperial free status and the economic pull of surrounding territorial lords.