12 Kreuzer - Ferdinand of Bayern Kipper

This piece belongs to the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — the "clipper and see-saw" inflation crisis that convulsed the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623. Territorial mints, including ecclesiastical ones like Paderborn, systematically debased their coinage to exploit fixed exchange rates, flooding circulation with underweight silver while hoarding full-weight coin. The profit went to the issuing authority; the losses fell entirely on whoever got stuck holding the debased pieces when the system collapsed.

Ferdinand of Bayern governed Paderborn as prince-bishop from 1618, one of several Bavarian Wittelsbachs who accumulated multiple northern ecclesiastical territories simultaneously.