1 Pfennig - Louis IV Upper Bavaria

Louis IV of Upper Bavaria was elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1314 — the same year a disputed election produced a rival claimant in Frederick the Fair of Habsburg, plunging the Empire into nearly two decades of intermittent civil war. Small silver pfennigs of this type circulated through that entire conflict, including the years Louis spent under papal excommunication after refusing to defer his imperial coronation to Avignon.

The Wittelsbach monetary policy during this period favored lightweight bracteate-influenced pfennigs across their Bavarian holdings, though Upper and Lower Bavaria maintained separate issues following the 1255 division of the duchy.