1 Pfennig - Ernst von Bayern

Ernst von Bayern served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1540 to 1554, a appointment driven entirely by Wittelsbach dynastic politics rather than ecclesiastical merit — he was installed at the insistence of his family over the objections of the cathedral chapter. The Pfennig issues cataloged under Zöttl 423–433 span a range of die varieties reflecting the inconsistent output of the Salzburg mint across his tenure.

Billon coinage of this weight and period degrades unpredictably in surviving examples due to the variable silver content in the alloy, which the Salzburg mint was not above quietly reducing during fiscally strained years.