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1 Schilling - Michael Hildebrand
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Riga |
|---|---|
| Year | 1484-1509 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.05 g |
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| Obverse description | Central field bears a plain cross pattée within a beaded inner border, flanked by small decorative stops. The surrounding circular legend, struck in Gothic uncial characters, reads MONETA · MICHAELIS ·, identifying the coin as the issue of Archbishop Michael Hildebrand. The flan is irregular and slightly uneven, as is typical of hammered billon coinage of the Baltic region in the late fifteenth century. |
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| Reverse description | The reverse displays two crossed archiepiscopal staffs or croziers arranged saltire-wise in the central field, a heraldic device associated with the See of Riga. The circular legend in Gothic uncial lettering reads ARCHIEPI · RIGENSIS ·, denoting the Archbishop of Riga. The flan edges are irregular and the strike is characteristic of hammered production, with slight weakness at the periphery. |
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| Additional information |
Michael Hildebrand served as Archbishop of Riga from 1484 to 1509, a tenure defined largely by his resistance to the encroachments of the Livonian Order, which repeatedly contested the temporal authority of the archbishopric over Riga itself. The right to strike coin was among the privileges the archbishops defended most fiercely — a tangible assertion of jurisdictional independence in a region where ecclesiastical and military powers were in near-constant friction.
Billon coinage of this period from the Baltic ecclesiastical mints is notoriously difficult to attribute precisely within a reign, as die production was irregular and dating conventions inconsistent across the Livonian confederate states.