1 Pfennig - William VI

Hesse-Cassel emerged from the Thirty Years' War in 1645 — the very year of this issue — as one of the Protestant powers that had backed Sweden against the Habsburgs. Landgrave William VI was only sixteen when he succeeded his mother Amalie Elisabeth, who had managed the territory through the worst of the conflict with considerable political skill. The Peace of Westphalia was still three years away, and small silver pfennigs like this were being struck into an economy ravaged by decades of troop contributions, requisitions, and currency debasement by occupying forces.

The survival of a 0.35g silver piece from this period in any collectible state reflects how rarely such minor coinage escaped the melting pot.