6 Pfennig - Six brothers

The "Six Brothers" kipper coinage of 1621 takes its name from the six co-ruling dukes of Saxe-Weimar who jointly issued it during the Kipper- und Wipperzeit — the catastrophic currency debasement crisis that swept the Holy Roman Empire between roughly 1619 and 1623. Minters across the Empire raced to produce debased small coinage, melting good silver currency and returning lightweight or base-metal substitutes. Saxe-Weimar was among the many small states that participated aggressively.

Copper issues like this one represent the floor of that debasement cycle.