12 Pfennig

Hamm's copper pfennig issues of this period belong to the broader wave of municipal emergency coinage that swept the Holy Roman Empire's smaller cities as silver shortages and currency debasement made low-denomination exchange nearly impossible. The Thirty Years' War, which erupted at the tail end of this issue's production window in 1618, would soon render most such local copper coinage obsolete or worthless as military requisition and civic breakdown disrupted ordinary commerce throughout Westphalia.