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 emissaries landed in a with Catholic France in the long history of dung heap, which saved joining forces with Europe was not the First their lives. Many of their Protestant Sweden to World War, nor the brethren were not as defeat its Habsburg rivals. Napoleonic Wars, nor fortunate. The incident even World War II, but enraged the Habsburg As months turned into rather the three decades ruler Ferdinand, now the years, and years to of combat between 1618 , decades, the economies and 1648 known today as who sought to establish a collapsed. Inflation was the Thirty Years’ War. The universal church in his rampant. Armies could interval between the disparate and diverse not be paid, and unpaid Defenestration of , dominions—with armies refused to which began the disastrous results. disband. Instead, soldiers hostilities, and the Peace ran roughshod across the of Westphalia, which After exacting revenge on continent, pillaging and ended them, wrought the Prague rebels at the raping and destroying astonishing carnage. Battle of White Mountain anything they could not Some twenty percent of in 1620, Ferdinand immediately use. The the population died from clamped down harder on Peace of Westphalia, the battle, plague, or religious freedom, and the series of compacts that starvation—a staggering war wore on. With ended the war, was the three times the death rate support from Michael I product not of victory but of the Second World War. of Russia and Sigismund of exhaustion. It is was III of the Polish- unclear who won the depopulated, with vast Lithuanian war—with the exception swaths of territory Commonwealth, armies of the Lithuanian grand literally gone to the dogs. from , , duke Jan Casimir II, England, Holland, who was imprisoned by The stage was set for war , and especially Richelieu during the war in the 1590s. The militant Sweden, under King but wound up on the Catholic rulers Ferdinand Gustavus Adolphus and Polish throne immediately II and Maximilian then Queen Christina, after—but millions of stamped out and France, led by King people lost. in Austria Louis XIII’s chief and Bavaria, respectively. minister Cardinal The fighting began in Richelieu, prolonged the 1618, when Protestant seemingly-interminable leaders threw two conflict. What began as a Catholic emissaries out of religious war ended as a Prague window. The something else entirely,

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: 17.5-

18.5 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.