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1 Pfennig - Leopold William of Austria

Issuer Imperial Abbeys of Murbach and Lüders
Year 1626-1662
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Value 1 Pfennig (1⁄288)
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Obverse description Bipartite shield bearing the dimidiated arms of Murbach (a crozier on the dexter side) and Lüders (a stylized floral or foliate device on the sinister side), all within a raised inner circle surrounded by a beaded outer border. The shield divides the field vertically, with both charges rendered in a simple, archaic hammered style typical of small German ecclesiastical coinage of the early seventeenth century. No legend is present.
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Reverse description Plain blank flan with no design, inscription, or decorative elements, consistent with the bracteate-influenced tradition of small uniface or near-uniface Pfennig coinage from the Holy Roman Empire.
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Leopold William of Austria, the issuing authority here, was a career ecclesiastic who accumulated bishoprics and abbacies across the Holy Roman Empire with remarkable efficiency — at his peak simultaneously holding Strasbourg, Passau, Halberstadt, Olmütz, and Breslau alongside Murbach and Lüders. He never took holy orders beyond the diaconate. The joint abbey of Murbach-Lüders, an Alsatian imperial foundation dating to the eighth century, retained the right to strike coin well into the seventeenth century despite its diminished political weight.

Silver pfennigs from this abbatial mint are poorly documented in most major collections, and the 36-year span of the Divo attribution reflects how difficult precise dating within the Leopold William issues remains.

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