1 Thaler - Joachim Ernest

Joachim Ernest ruled Brandenburg-Ansbach from 1603 until his death in 1625, navigating the opening salvos of the Thirty Years' War with studied neutrality — a position increasingly untenable by 1623, the year this thaler was struck. That same year, the Kipper und Wipperzeit currency debasement crisis was finally collapsing, having reduced much of the Holy Roman Empire's small-denomination coinage to near-worthless copper-washed silver. Full-weight thalers like this one became objects of hoarding almost immediately upon issue.

Brandenburg-Ansbach operated its mint at Schwabach during this period under tight fiscal pressure.