1 Thaler

Lübeck's thaler production in the early 1590s coincided with the city's increasingly precarious position within the Hanseatic League — trade volumes through the Baltic were contracting under pressure from Dutch competition, and the city council was navigating costly disputes over toll rights on the Sound. The thalers of this period served the city's merchant class as much as its treasury, circulating widely in northern European trade networks where Lübeck's civic credit still carried weight.

Behr 121b distinguishes a specific die variant within this short emission window. The five-year span of the dating range likely reflects continuous use of paired dies rather than annual re-engraving, a common economy among the smaller imperial city mints.