1 Pfennig - Emmerich Joseph of Breidbach-Bürresheim

Emmerich Joseph von Breidbach-Bürresheim became Archbishop-Elector of Mainz in 1763, inheriting a see whose finances had been badly strained by the Seven Years' War. Small copper pfennig issues of this period served the most basic local exchange needs across the electorate — the larger silver and gold denominations were simply unavailable to most of the population for daily commerce. The dual Gräßler references suggest at least two distinct die varieties for this single year of issue, a detail that rewards closer attention from specialists in Rhenish minor coinage.