12 Kreuzer - Frederick Ulrich Kipper

Frederick Ulrich's 12 Kreuzer belongs to the Kipperzeit — the "tipper and see-saw time" of 1619–1623, when German mints across the Empire engaged in a coordinated debasement race, each authority clipping silver content and passing debased coin into neighboring territories before the inevitable collapse. Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was no innocent bystander. Frederick Ulrich operated multiple emergency mints during this period, flooding regional circulation with underweight Kipper coinage while accepting full-weight coin in tax payments.

The monetary crash of 1623 wiped out savings across the Protestant north. This piece dates from near the peak of the crisis.