The Kipper und Wipperzeit — roughly 1619 to 1623 — was one of the most destructive monetary crises in early modern European history, driven by princes and minting contractors who systematically debased coinage to extract seigniorage profit during the financial strain of the opening phase of the Thirty Years' War. Tyrol was not immune. Leopold V, who had acquired the county in 1619, issued billon pieces of conspicuously reduced silver content as the crisis peaked, then scrambled with the rest of the Holy Roman territories to stabilize currencies once the scheme collapsed under its own inflation.
The two-year window of MT#439–440 corresponds almost exactly to the final, most chaotic phase before the Kipper era ended abruptly around 1623.
The Kipper und Wipperzeit — roughly 1619 to 1623 — was one of the most destructive monetary crises in early modern European history, driven by princes and minting contractors who systematically debased coinage to extract seigniorage profit during the financial strain of the opening phase of the Thirty Years' War. Tyrol was not immune. Leopold V, who had acquired the county in 1619, issued billon pieces of conspicuously reduced silver content as the crisis peaked, then scrambled with the rest of the Holy Roman territories to stabilize currencies once the scheme collapsed under its own inflation.
The two-year window of MT#439–440 corresponds almost exactly to the final, most chaotic phase before the Kipper era ended abruptly around 1623.