1 Thaler

Lübeck's Thaler issues of the mid-sixteenth century were struck during a period of acute commercial anxiety for the city. The Hanseatic League was fracturing under pressure from rising territorial powers — the Duchy of Schleswig-Holstein to the north, the Counts of Oldenburg by sea — and Lübeck had recently suffered a catastrophic defeat in the Count's War of 1534–36, which ended its dominance over Scandinavian trade routes and permanently curtailed its political reach in the Baltic.

The date range spanning multiple years reflects sequential die production rather than a single emission, consistent with Hanseatic minting practice of the period. Davenport GT I#9405 distinguishes this type within a closely related cluster of Lübeck Thalers sharing obverse die families.