[NUMISMATICS / CURRENCY REGULATIONS ~ 1680]. Nachdeme einem Wohl-Edlen/ Gestrengen/ Fursichtig: und Hochweisen Rathe dieser Stadt/ grundliche Nachricht eingelauffen/ dass ... verbottene allzuringhaltige/ dieser Tagen eine starcke Anzahl/ nicht bessere Muntzsorten ... unter dess Herrn Augusti Friderich Bischoffen zu Lubeck/ und Hertzogen zu Holstein/ [et]c. wie auch dess Herrn Carl Wilhelms Fursten zu Anhalt ... anhero gebracht worden seyen Decretum in Senatu den 6. Martii An. 1680

[Nurnberg?], 1680. Very good. Broadsheet (315 x 395 mm = 12.5" x 15.5") folded vertically. Fraktur and roman type, with 26 woodcuts of coins (very light toning, outer margins likely trimmed at a later date, small hole in lower blank margin, not effecting text). Preserved in a mylar L-sleeve supported by archival lig-free board. WARNING AGAINST FAKE AND DEBASED CURRENCY BEING BROUGHT INTO GERMANY, ILLUSTRATED WITH 26 WOODCUTS DEPICTING GENUINE COINS. IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE COUNTERFEIT COINS HERE UNDER SUSPICION WERE THE VERY ONES DEBASED BY THE GERMAN PRINCES THEMSELVES IN THE EARLY 17TH CENTURY TO FUND THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR. THE DEBASED OR COUNTERFEIT COINS WERE EXPORTED ABROAD AND EXCHANGED FOR GENUINE COINS, A SWINDLE AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS WHICH PEAKED CA. 1621-1623. THE PRESENT BROADSIDE HERALDS THE SECOND SO-CALLED "KIPPER UND WIPPER" MONETARY DISASTER WHICH AFFECTED THE ENTIRE HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE AND LED TO WIDESPREAD INFLATION, FINANCIAL INSTABILITY AND ECONOMIC DEPRESSION.

Offered here is a rare 1680 broadsheet issued by an unnamed (but Regensburg?) City Council in which merchants are warned by a "noble, strict, prudent, and highly wise councilor of this City" about fake coins being circulated, and the legal and financial consequences of accepting them. Represented here are currencies of Augustus Frederick, Bishop of Lubeck, the Duke of Holstein, and the Princes of Saxony, Anhalt and Montfort, and the Fugger Family of Augsburg (15 Kreuzer). As is well known, the Fugger banking family was perhaps the single richest family of all time; lesser known is their direct involvement in the international slave trade.

We are unable to explain why Montfort currency is depicted here at all, for in December 1679 the three regional states of Southern Germany attempted to ban the Montfort denominations from Gulden to Kreutzer (SOURCE: Joachim Stollhoff, "The Counts of Montfort and their College" in: Coins Weekly 7/28/2010 online).

§ VD-17 28:731407M (locating a single copy: UB Rostock) gives the corporate heading "Regensburg.