1 Schilling - Heinrich von Galen and Wilhelm von Brandenburg Riga, bumpy top with regular sides

This joint issue emerged from one of the more awkward political arrangements in Baltic history: the Livonian Order and the Archbishopric of Riga were frequently at odds, yet economic necessity periodically forced them into cooperative coinage agreements. By the early 1550s, both parties were operating under existential pressure — Ivan IV was consolidating power to the east, and the fragmented Livonian Confederation lacked the unity to respond coherently. The monetary union this schilling represents was less a sign of partnership than a pragmatic stopgap.

Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Ansbach, the Archbishop, was himself a Hohenzollern — his presence in Riga a reminder of how thoroughly German dynastic politics had penetrated the Baltic ecclesiastical structure by this period.