48 Kipper Kreuzer - Ferdinand II Vienna

The Kipper und Wipperzeit — roughly "the clipping and see-sawing time" — was a currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623, triggered in large part by the financial demands of the Thirty Years' War. Princes, cities, and mints across the Empire raced to coin debased silver, pocket the seigniorage, and pass the bad money along before neighbors could refuse it. Vienna was no exception.

This 48 Kreuzer piece is a direct product of that emergency — a large-denomination billon coin issued when Ferdinand II desperately needed cash to suppress the Bohemian revolt following the Battle of White Mountain. The denomination itself was essentially fictional by the time most examples reached circulation.