30 Kreuzers - Gustav

The County of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein was among the smallest sovereign entities in the Holy Roman Empire with the right to mint — a privilege the county exercised aggressively during the currency chaos of the late seventeenth century. Gustav Adolf, Count of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Hohenstein, issued this piece during the prolonged monetary disorder that followed the Thirty Years' War, when debased coinages from dozens of petty issuers flooded the Rhenish and Westphalian circuits. The Kreisabschlüsse currency conventions of the period repeatedly tried to impose order; minor counts like Gustav routinely ignored them when it suited their finances.