1 Pfennig - Albert III the Pious

Albert III ruled Bavaria-Munich during a period when the duchy's coinage was fragmenting badly — competing branches of the Wittelsbachs were each striking their own pfennigs, and the resulting monetary confusion prompted periodic inter-ducal agreements to standardize weights and fineness. The billon composition here reflects chronic silver shortages that plagued southern German minting throughout the mid-fifteenth century, driving alloy content down across successive issues.

Witt#172 is among the more precisely attributable pieces in this notoriously difficult series, where die-matching and hoard provenance often do more work than any single reference.