Minting in Cieszyn during the rule of Frederick William (1617-1625)
Minting in Cieszyn which was in decline during the last few years of the rule of Adam Wenceslas finally ceased after his death in 1617 since his son and successor, Prince Frederick William, was initially living outside the duchy. Besides, those were times of total monetary chaos caused by the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War. Emperor Ferdinand II ordered the local Silesian mints to be closed in 1620. It was not only the deputies of the Cieszyn Prince that protested against this order at the Silesian Sejm, arguing that their Prince had just started to reorganise the mint. The war and other speculative undertakings triggered massive inflation finally leading to a bout of hyperinflation in Germany known as the Kipper and Wipper period. A similar situation arose in Silesia where 12 and 24 kreutzer coins were put into circulation. The monetary reform was only implemented in December 1623, restoring the former monetary standard and radically devaluing inflated coins; the 24 kreutzer coin was now worth 3 kreutzers. It was practically a declaration of bankruptcy. At the same time the Emperor curbed the privileges of the Silesian princes concerning monetary matters.
A hoard dating from that period, i.e. after 1624, was found in 1941 in Brenna-Lesnica. Among other coinage it consisted of coins issued in the Cieszyn Duchy in 1621-22. Despite the war Prince Frederick William managed to restart minting. Coins struck between 1620 and 1624 feature the initials HL; that is the mintmark referring to Hans Loss. He issued a considerable number of coins of various denominations e.g. 3 heller coins weighing 0.6 g also known as greschels or groszyki with a splendid orb and a cross (1622-23); three types of 3 kreutzer coins in Czech called groschens (1620-23); and 3 groschen coins in 1624. The last ones are modelled on the coins of the same denomination minted by Prince Adam Wenceslas. Only the bust is different, featuring the Prince in a Spanish collar. Loss also struck some new types of coins which appeared during the period of inflation; 12 kreutzer pieces and even 24 kreutzer coins in 1621. The obverse of this particularly large coin of 31 mm in diameter clearly bears the bust of the Prince, while the reverse features the full version of the Cieszyn Duchy's coat of arms. The Prince's bust is depicted on the 12 kreutzer coin as well. Nevertheless these coins patterned again on Polish coinage were generally of low value and like all the coinage dating from that time were called kipper coins. The portrait of Prince Frederick William appears on the most ambitious example of Hans Loss' minting during that period; the thaler issued in 1623. It is modelled on the thaler minted by Rundt in 1611, although the Prince is depicted in a doublet with an open collar. The legend within the border on the reverse reads IN DEO MEO TRANSGREDIAR MVRVM.
Prince Frederick William restored minting in Skoczów and leased the right to mint to Daniel Raschke who between 1621 and 1622 struck 3, 12 and 24 kreutzer coins bearing the distinctive mintmark of an S inside a C.
The last coins to be struck in Cieszyn during the rule of Frederick William date from 1624. The following year the Prince died in Cologne on his way to the Netherlands to fight the Protestants. A year after his death all the tools and vessels from the Cieszyn mint worth almost 30 thousand guldens were seized by the Danish army occupying Cieszyn and taken to Hradec near Opava. Until 1627 copper counterfeits with metal acquired from copper brewing vats and a small admixture of silver were struck there in huge numbers with the use of tools from Cieszyn. They were distributed widely, for instance large quantities of them were taken to Cracow. Daniel Raschke, mentioned above, who was the mint master in Skoczów, and then in Racibórz, worked there between 1626 and 1627.
The seizure of the minting equipment together with the enduring state of inactivity concerning the succession to the throne in the Cieszyn Duchy resulted in another longer pause in the functioning of the Cieszyn mint. The consequences of the mint masters' work or actually the Cieszyn princes' policies regarding minting continued to be felt by the common people for a long time.
In 1635 Emperor Ferdinand II issued a decree cataloguing all the coinage in circulation. It includes the Cieszyn groschen of Prince Adam Wenceslas issued in 1609 which at that time was worth only 10 hellers.