1⁄12 Thaler - Sede Vacante

Sede Vacante coinage was struck by ecclesiastical mints during the interval between a bishop's death and his successor's confirmation — a legal window in which the cathedral chapter assumed temporal authority and exercised, briefly, the right of coinage. The Hildesheim vacancy of 1762–63 followed the death of Clemens August of Bavaria, who had simultaneously held five northern German sees. Sorting out that succession was a protracted affair, which is precisely why this issue spans two calendar years.