1 Schilling - Wilhelm von Brandenburg Koknese, large shield, with border

Wilhelm von Brandenburg-Ansbach was appointed Archbishop of Riga in 1539 under heavy pressure from the Hohenzollern family, and his tenure coincided with the slow dissolution of Livonian Catholic ecclesiastical authority under the advance of Lutheran reform. By 1547, the Archbishopric retained just enough administrative infrastructure to mint coinage, though its political grip on the region was visibly weakening. The billon content of these schillings reflects the broader monetary degradation across Livonian coinages through the mid-sixteenth century.

Haljak distinguishes the large-shield variety from the small-shield type by die — a distinction that matters for completeness-focused collectors of the series.