1 Thaler Klippe

Cologne struck klippe thalers during this decade under severe municipal strain — the city was navigating the fallout from the Cologne War, a conflict triggered when Archbishop Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg converted to Protestantism in 1582 and attempted to secularize the electorate. The square format was not decorative whimsy; klippe issues frequently served ceremonial or donative functions, and a city defending its Catholic imperial status had reason to make its coinage conspicuous.

The Davenport reference places this among a tightly documented group of Rhenish civic issues rarely encountered outside German auction houses.