Weissgroschen - Rudolf II Kuttenberg

Rudolf II relocated his imperial court from Vienna to Prague in 1583, making Bohemia the administrative heart of the Habsburg empire for the next two decades. The Kuttenberg mint — one of the oldest and most productive silver operations in Central Europe, fed by the Kutná Hora ore deposits that had enriched Bohemian kings since the thirteenth century — continued striking these small silver pieces throughout his reign despite Rudolf's increasingly erratic governance and the mounting pressure of the Long Turkish War draining imperial finances after 1593.