Philip II ruled Pomerania-Stettin during the final, anxious decades before the duchy's absorption into Brandenburg, and this large multiple thaler was struck just one year before his death in 1618. Issues of this size were never intended for commerce — they functioned as presentation pieces, gifts exchanged between courts, or demonstration of a mint's technical capability. The Thirty Years' War, which erupted the year after Philip died, effectively ended independent Pomeranian coinage production for a generation.
Philip died without a male heir, setting in motion the dynastic crisis that would eventually extinguish the Pomeranian Greifenhaus line entirely with Bogislaw XIV in 1637.
Philip II ruled Pomerania-Stettin during the final, anxious decades before the duchy's absorption into Brandenburg, and this large multiple thaler was struck just one year before his death in 1618. Issues of this size were never intended for commerce — they functioned as presentation pieces, gifts exchanged between courts, or demonstration of a mint's technical capability. The Thirty Years' War, which erupted the year after Philip died, effectively ended independent Pomeranian coinage production for a generation.
Philip died without a male heir, setting in motion the dynastic crisis that would eventually extinguish the Pomeranian Greifenhaus line entirely with Bogislaw XIV in 1637.