1 Thaler

1621 placed Nuremberg at the epicenter of the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — the catastrophic currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire as German states frantically clipped, sweated, and debased their coinage to finance the opening campaigns of the Thirty Years' War. Nuremberg, unusually, resisted the debasement pressure longer than most imperial cities, and thalers from this mint in this year were struck to a higher standard than much of what was circulating regionally.

KM#51 represents one of several thaler types Nuremberg issued in rapid succession during these years as monetary confidence collapsed around them.