12 Scherf Kipper

Erfurt's 12 Scherf Kipper dates to the most destructive phase of the Kipperzeit, the currency debasement crisis of 1619–1623 that devastated the Holy Roman Empire's monetary system. Municipal and territorial mints across central Germany raced to issue debased coinage, collecting sound money, melting it, and returning adulterated pieces at a profit — a scheme that collapsed local economies and triggered food riots in several cities. Erfurt, nominally under the Archbishop of Mainz yet functionally semi-autonomous, ran its own mint operations through this window. The copper composition here is the endpoint of that spiral.