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2 Pfennig - John Albert II
| Issuer | Mecklenburg-Güstrow, Duchy of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1621 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | The Mecklenburg griffin passant displayed within a beaded inner circle, occupying the central field of the flan. The heraldic beast is rendered in a primitive hammered style characteristic of early seventeenth-century German minor coinage. A Latin legend encircles the device, reading the duke's abbreviated title: HANS ALBRECH : H : Z : M, identifying Johann Albrecht II, Herzog zu Mecklenburg. |
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| Reverse lettering | : II : PFEN NING 1621 |
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| Additional information |
John Albert II ruled Mecklenburg-Güstrow through some of the most economically destabilizing years of the Thirty Years' War, which had opened just three years before this coin was struck. Small copper pfennig issues of this period were a direct response to the catastrophic debasement of silver coinage during the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — the "clipping and culling" crisis of 1619–1623, when manipulated billon coins flooded German markets and drove sound metal entirely out of circulation. Copper became the pragmatic fallback for petty transactions when nothing else could be trusted.