Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
3 Kreuzers - Ferdinand II Graz
| Issuer | Austrian Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1629-1637 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Laureate and draped bust of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Habsburg facing right, occupying the central field within a beaded circle. The numeral '3' denoting the denomination appears below the bust. The surrounding legend, commencing at 12 o'clock, reads the abbreviated titulature for Ferdinand II, by the Grace of God Emperor of the Romans, King of Germany, Hungary, and Bohemia. The portrait is rendered in the late Renaissance style characteristic of Habsburg coinage of the early seventeenth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Three heart-shaped heraldic shields arranged in trefoil fashion, their points converging at the centre of the field: the shield of Austria positioned above, Burgundy to the lower right, and Styria to the lower left, with decorative foliate or floral ornaments filling the intervening spaces. The composition is contained within a beaded circle. The surrounding legend, commencing at 12 o'clock, bears the abbreviated title Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy and Styria, with the mint date appearing within the legend. On certain later-dated examples the legend opens with the fuller form ARCHI rather than ARCH. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Ferdinand II ruled the Habsburg lands through the worst years of the Thirty Years' War, and the Graz mint operated under sustained financial pressure throughout this period. War financing drove a deliberate debasement of the Kipper und Wipper era, and while the worst of that silver crisis had nominally passed by 1629, the .500 fineness of this issue reflects how far Austrian small coinage had drifted from earlier standards — earlier 3 Kreuzer pieces had circulated at meaningfully higher silver content.
Ferdinand died in February 1637, ending a reign defined by the Counter-Reformation's aggressive reassertion across Styria, where the Graz mint sat.