12 Kreuzer - Frederick Ulrich Kipper

This coin is a product of the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — the "clipper and see-saw time" — a monetary catastrophe that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1618 and 1623, in which territorial mints competitively debased their coinage to extract seigniorage profit while the Thirty Years' War drained public finances. Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel under Frederick Ulrich was among the many principalities that participated aggressively, issuing inflated-denomination coins on drastically underweight, base-silver flans. At 2.4 g for a 12 Kreuzer piece, the metal content was a fraction of what the face value implied.

Frederick Ulrich himself was a weak ruler, frequently manipulated by his court, and the mint policy during his reign was effectively driven by financial opportunists rather than ducal strategy.