1 Pfennig - William VII

William VII ruled Hesse-Cassel for only four years before dying in 1670 at age twenty-two, leaving no heir and triggering a succession dispute that briefly threatened the landgraviate's autonomy. Tiny silver pfennigs of this type — struck in the closing decades before copper displaced silver for the lowest denominations across most German states — were already an anachronism at the time of issue, clinging to a tradition that most neighboring mints had already abandoned.