3 Thalers - Frederick Ulrich

Frederick Ulrich's reign over Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel was, by most measures, a disaster. He assumed power in 1613 under the effective control of his minister Christoph von Döring, whose corrupt administration provoked open revolt among the Estates. The large multiple thalers issued in his name during this period functioned less as circulating currency than as prestige objects — demonstrating a fiscal confidence the principality did not actually possess.

1617 sits just on the edge of the Thirty Years' War, which would devastate the region beginning the following year. Frederick Ulrich himself died in 1634 without a legitimate heir, extinguishing the Wolfenbüttel line entirely.