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4 Heller
| Issuer | Ulm, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1621-1622 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The city arms of Ulm depicted as a crowned heraldic shield, the upper half charged with a crosshatched or lozengy pattern with pellets at the intersections, the lower half plain, set within an ornate Baroque cartouche with foliate and scroll ornaments flanking the shield on either side. The numeral '4' appears prominently in the upper field above the crown, flanked by two pellets. The date numerals '16' and '21' are positioned to the left and right of the crown respectively, serving as the split date inscription. The entire design is contained within a beaded inner border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Entirely blank field with no design, inscription, or ornamental device, characteristic of the uniface coinage technique employed for small-denomination copper Heller issues of the period. The surface exhibits the rough, unfinished texture typical of hammered copper planchets of early seventeenth-century German municipal coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Ulm struck these copper 4 Heller pieces during the opening years of the Thirty Years' War, a conflict that devastated the currency systems of virtually every German state. The city's decision to produce low-denomination copper coinage in 1621–22 reflects the acute silver shortage that followed the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — a currency crisis in which debasers flooded the Reich with underweight silver coins, driving sound metal into hoarding and forcing municipalities to plug the gap with copper.
Ulm, as a Free Imperial City on the Danube, retained minting rights that many smaller entities had long since surrendered, which is why civic issues like this one survived the chaos at all.