1 Thaler - Eric II

Eric II ruled Brunswick-Calenberg from 1540 until his death in 1584, spending much of his reign as a mercenary commander in French service — fighting on the Catholic side despite governing a Lutheran territory, a contradiction that generated persistent political friction with his own estates. The thalers struck in his name during 1579–1581 fall near the end of his rule, when chronic debt from decades of military adventuring had severely strained the principality's finances.

Welter 449 is among the more frequently encountered of his thaler types, though die alignment and sharpness vary considerably across surviving examples — a predictable consequence of small-workshop production under fiscal pressure.