1 Thaler

Nuremberg's thaler coinage of the mid-1630s was struck against a backdrop of existential municipal crisis: the city had endured Swedish occupation, imperial siege, and the catastrophic plague and famine that accompanied the encamped armies of Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein during the summer of 1632. Thousands died within the walls. The city's finances were decimated by contributions demanded by successive occupying forces, and maintaining a functioning mint was itself a political act — proof of civic continuity when everything else was collapsing.

The four-year span of this issue, 1635–1638, brackets the Peace of Prague and Nuremberg's difficult navigation between Swedish alliance and imperial reconciliation.