8 heller - Henry IV Dücker

Werden Abbey, a Benedictine house on the Ruhr, held the right to strike coin as an imperial abbey — a privilege that produced an erratic and poorly documented series of small silver issues throughout the Thirty Years' War and its immediate aftermath. This piece dates to precisely the transition point: the war ended with the Peace of Westphalia in October 1648, meaning some of these heller entered circulation into a Rhineland still physically devastated by three decades of troop movements, requisitioning, and currency debasement.

Henry IV Dücker served as abbot from 1646 to 1677. KM#38 is among the scarcest attributable issues of his tenure.