Hamm's copper small change of 1635 was struck in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when the lower Rhine-Westphalia region changed hands repeatedly between Imperial, Spanish, and Dutch-aligned forces. Municipal authorities across the region issued emergency copper coinage precisely because silver had been hoarded, melted, or requisitioned by passing armies. Hamm, a Westphalian town on the Lippe River, was no exception.
KM#45 is sparsely documented in the auction record, suggesting limited survival — unsurprising for a copper municipal issue struck under wartime conditions and intended purely for local petty transactions.
Hamm's copper small change of 1635 was struck in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, when the lower Rhine-Westphalia region changed hands repeatedly between Imperial, Spanish, and Dutch-aligned forces. Municipal authorities across the region issued emergency copper coinage precisely because silver had been hoarded, melted, or requisitioned by passing armies. Hamm, a Westphalian town on the Lippe River, was no exception.
KM#45 is sparsely documented in the auction record, suggesting limited survival — unsurprising for a copper municipal issue struck under wartime conditions and intended purely for local petty transactions.