Frederick Ulrich's administration of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel coincided with the Kipper- und Wipperzeit, the catastrophic currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623. Mints across the German states — including Brunswick's — raced to produce debased small coinage, extracting profit by issuing coins with face values far exceeding their metal content. This piece is a product of that frenzy.
Welter 1343 places it firmly within Frederick Ulrich's copper issues of 1620, when copper substitution for silver in minor denominations was accelerating rapidly across Lower Saxony.
Frederick Ulrich's administration of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel coincided with the Kipper- und Wipperzeit, the catastrophic currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623. Mints across the German states — including Brunswick's — raced to produce debased small coinage, extracting profit by issuing coins with face values far exceeding their metal content. This piece is a product of that frenzy.
Welter 1343 places it firmly within Frederick Ulrich's copper issues of 1620, when copper substitution for silver in minor denominations was accelerating rapidly across Lower Saxony.