1 Heller - Paul Alexander Leopold II

Paul Alexander Leopold II ruled Lippe from 1802 until his death in 1851, but this copper heller was struck only during the middle portion of that reign. Lippe was among the smallest of the German states, a minor principality that retained minting rights through the era of German fragmentation — rights that would effectively end with monetary unification pressures of the later nineteenth century. The heller itself was the lowest denomination in circulation, a coin so marginal in value that most contemporary Germans barely registered its existence.