1 Pfennig - Sigismund von Volkersdorf

Sigismund von Volkersdorf served as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1452 until his forced resignation in 1461, a tenure defined almost entirely by his catastrophic conflict with the Habsburg Duke Frederick III. The dispute — rooted in territorial jurisdiction and ecclesiastical independence — eventually drove Sigismund from his see entirely, making coins struck in his name products of an administration under sustained political siege. Small billon issues like this one were the workhorse currency of Alpine market transactions, circulating alongside the larger silver output of the Salzburg mint that Sigismund never fully controlled.