2 Kreuzers - Maximilian II

The Fugger family's right to strike coinage at Babenhausen derived from imperial privilege granted in recognition of the dynasty's extraordinary financial services to the Habsburgs — a family that had, at its peak, effectively bankrolled the election of Charles V as Holy Roman Emperor. By the late sixteenth century that political leverage had diminished considerably, but the minting rights endured. This small silver issue spans the reign of Maximilian II, Count of Fugger-Babenhausen, and continued into the Thirty Years' War period, when small-denomination silver of this type was routinely debased or driven out of circulation by the catastrophic Kipper und Wipper inflation of the early 1620s.