1 Batzen - Hugo of Hohenlandenberg

Hugo von Hohenlandenberg served as Bishop of Constance during one of the most turbulent periods in the diocese's history — his tenure bracketed the opening salvos of the Reformation, and he was still in office when Luther posted his theses in 1517. The Bishopric of Constance was then the largest diocese in the Holy Roman Empire by geographic extent, stretching from Alsace into Switzerland, which gave its currency genuine regional circulation weight. Hugo actually resigned in 1529 under Protestant pressure, then was reinstated, an ecclesiastical rarity.

The Batzen denomination itself was a Swiss innovation, first struck at Bern around 1492 and rapidly adopted across the southwestern Empire.