1 Pfennig - Maximilian III Joseph

Maximilian III Joseph inherited Bavaria in 1745 under the worst possible circumstances: his father Karl Albrecht had bankrupted the electorate chasing the Habsburg imperial title, dying as Holy Roman Emperor Charles VII with the treasury stripped bare and Austrian troops occupying Munich. The new elector spent his first decade unwinding that catastrophe, and these tiny silver Pfennige — minted across two decades of fiscal recovery — were among the smallest instruments of a monetary system being rebuilt from near-collapse.

The use of silver for a one-Pfennig denomination reflects the lingering conservatism of Bavarian minting practice rather than any abundance of the metal.