1 Pfennig - Anthony Ulrich

Anthony Ulrich ruled Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel for over five decades and spent much of his later reign converting to Catholicism in 1709 — a politically fraught move in a Lutheran territory. These small copper pfennigs, struck in the years just before that conversion, circulated through a duchy already marked by his extravagant court spending and the construction of Salzdahlum palace, which drained ducal finances considerably. Small denomination copper coinage from German principalities of this period survives unevenly; much was melted or simply lost to attrition given the metal's low intrinsic value.