1 Groschen - Christopher of Bellinghausen

Corvey, the Benedictine abbey on the Weser, held the status of an imperial abbey — answerable to the Emperor, not to any territorial prince — and its abbots exercised minting rights that stretched back to the Carolingian period. Christopher of Bellinghausen served as prince-abbot from 1678 to 1696, striking small silver coinage at a moment when the abbey's secular influence was already being squeezed by the ambitions of the neighboring Prince-Bishopric of Paderborn. The Ilisch/Schwede reference distinguishes this as die combination B/a, one of multiple pairings documented for the type.