3 Pfennig

Stralsund's copper small change of 1622–23 was struck at the height of the Kipper- und Wipperzeit, the currency crisis that convulsed the Holy Roman Empire as mints across German territories debased coinage on an industrial scale. The city, a major Hanseatic port on the Baltic, had strong incentive to maintain locally trusted small denominations when silver coinage had become genuinely unreliable.

Swedish protection of Stralsund came formally in 1628, but the city's de facto alignment with outside powers and jealous guard of its municipal privileges were already well established by the time this piece was struck.