3 Kreuzers - John Casimir and John Ernest Kipper

The Kipper und Wipper period (roughly 1619–1623) was one of the most destructive monetary episodes in German history, driven by dozens of petty states — Saxe-Coburg-Eisenach among them — deliberately debasing their coinage to exploit fixed exchange rates with neighbors. Mints ran at frantic capacity, often leased to private contractors who had every incentive to reduce silver content as far as the authorities would permit, and sometimes further.

John Casimir and John Ernest ruled jointly as co-dukes, a dynastic arrangement common in the Saxon duchies following repeated inheritance partitions. This piece dates to the crisis year before the imperial currency reforms forced a painful revaluation that wiped out holders of Kipper-era small change.