1 Mariengroschen - Margaretha II

Margaretha II von Gleichen ruled Herford Abbey as abbess from 1565 to 1578, presiding over an institution that held the unusual status of an Imperial Abbey — answerable directly to the emperor rather than any intervening secular or ecclesiastical lord. This independence granted Herford the right to strike its own coinage, a privilege the abbey exercised intermittently across several centuries. The Mariengroschen denomination was a north German small silver workhorse, and abbey issues like this circulated alongside far larger territorial coinages in a region crowded with competing minting authorities.