1 Pfennig - Emmerich Joseph of Breidbach-Bürresheim

Emmerich Joseph von Breidbach-Bürresheim was elected Archbishop-Elector of Mainz in 1763 and proved an unusually reform-minded prince of the Church, drawn toward Febronianism and the broader Josephinist impulse to curtail papal authority over German ecclesiastical affairs. Small copper issues like this one were struck specifically to address chronic shortages of low-denomination coinage in the Rhenish territories — a persistent problem throughout the mid-eighteenth century that periodically disrupted local markets. His archiepiscopacy lasted until his death in 1774, making the two-year window of this particular pfennig a narrow one.