The eight coins in this collection circulated during the years 1618-1648: the time of
the Thirty Years’ War, the most destructive conflict in the long history of Europe.
The most destructive war
in the long history of
Europe was not the First
World War, nor the
Napoleonic Wars, nor
even World War II, but
rather the three decades
of combat between 1618
and 1648 known today as
the Thirty Years’ War. The
interval between the
Defenestration of Prague,
which began the
hostilities, and the Peace
of Westphalia, which
ended them, wrought
astonishing carnage.
Some twenty percent of
the population died from
battle, plague, or
starvation—a staggering
three times the death rate
of the Second World War.
Central Europe was
depopulated, with vast
swaths of territory
literally gone to the dogs.
The stage was set for war
in the 1590s. The militant
Catholic rulers Ferdinand
II and Maximilian
stamped out
Protestantism in Austria
and Bavaria, respectively.
The fighting began in
1618, when Protestant
leaders threw two
Catholic emissaries out of
a Prague window. The
emissaries landed in a
dung heap, which saved
their lives. Many of their
brethren were not as
fortunate. The incident
enraged the Habsburg
ruler Ferdinand, now the
Holy Roman Emperor,
who sought to establish a
universal church in his
disparate and diverse
dominions—with
disastrous results.
After exacting revenge on
the Prague rebels at the
Battle of White Mountain
in 1620, Ferdinand
clamped down harder on
religious freedom, and the
war wore on. With
support from Michael I
of Russia and Sigismund
III of the PolishLithuanian
Commonwealth, armies
from Germany, Spain,
England, Holland,
Denmark, and especially
Sweden, under King
Gustavus Adolphus and
then Queen Christina,
and France, led by King
Louis XIII’s chief
minister Cardinal
Richelieu, prolonged the
seemingly-interminable
conflict. What began as a
religious war ended as
something else entirely,
with Catholic France
joining forces with
Protestant Sweden to
defeat its Habsburg rivals.
As months turned into
years, and years to
decades, the economies
collapsed. Inflation was
rampant. Armies could
not be paid, and unpaid
armies refused to
disband. Instead, soldiers
ran roughshod across the
continent, pillaging and
raping and destroying
anything they could not
immediately use. The
Peace of Westphalia, the
series of compacts that
ended the war, was the
product not of victory but
of exhaustion. It is
unclear who won the
war—with the exception
of the Lithuanian grand
duke Jan Casimir II,
who was imprisoned by
Richelieu during the war
but wound up on the
Polish throne immediately
after—but millions of
people lost.
The Coins:
The coins in this remarkable collection circulated during the years 1618-1648: the time of
the Thirty Years War. Coinage of the seventeenth century was often crudely stuck, and the
condition of coins varies widely. As the war dragged on, and resources were exhausted, the
quality of the coinage suffered.
1. Austria, Ferdinand II 1619-1637,
silver 3 kreuzer
Features the portrait of the Holy Roman Emperor
Ferdinand II, the Habsburg and Catholic whose
regnal dates almost exactly overlap the war he
helped start and prolong.
Weight: average 1.6 g | Diameter: 20.5-23 mm
2. Hungary, Ferdinand II, King of
Hungary 1618–1625, silver denar
Struck by Ferdinand II, these issues feature a
portrait of the Madonna—the patron saint of
Hungary—holding the baby Jesus.
Weight: 0.5-0.6 g| Diameter: 15.5-16 mm
3. Bavaria, Maximilian I, 1598-1651,
silver pfennig
Issued in the Bavarian city of Bayern by the Duke
Maximilian, a staunch Catholic and ally of
Ferdinand. Weight: 0.9-1.2 g| Diameter: 17.518.5 mm
4. Russia, Michael I, 1613 - 1645
silver kopek
These crude “wire money” coins were issued by
Tsar Michael I, founder of the Romanov line.
Russia was an ally of the anti-Habsburgs.
Weight: Average .5 g | Diameter: 10.5 - 12 mm
5. Poland, Sigismund III, 1587-1632,
silver 3 polker
Issued by Sigismund III, ruler of Poland at the
beginning of the conflict.
Weight: 0.9-1.2 g | Diameter: 19.1-19.4 mm
6. Sweden/Livonia, Christina, 1632-1634,
billon schilling
Struck during the reign of Queen Christina, who
succeeded her father Gustavus Adolphus, who
died on the battlefield. Weight: 0.3-0.6 g|
Diameter: 15.5-16.2 mm
7. France, Louis XIII, 1610-1643, copper
double tournois
Three fleur-de-lis grace the reverse of this French
coin, which features a portrait of the King—a key
figure in the war. Weight: 1.6-3.5 g | Diameter:
20.2-21 mm
8. Lithuania, Johann II Casimir, 1648 –
1668, copper solidus
Features a portrait of Jan Casimir II, who spent
some of the war in a French dungeon, only to
claim the Lithuanian crown in 1648, at the
conclusion of the war.
Weight: 1.2-1.5 g | Diameter: 15.5-16 mm
All coins in each set are protected in an archival capsule and beautifully displayed in a
mahogany-like box. The box set is accompanied with a story card, certificate of
authenticity, and a black gift box.
Box measures: 4 3/8" X 5 3/8"
Order code: THIRTYYRSWARBOX
Images show typical coins, not to scale and is for illustration purpose only.
Coins in the sets will vary.