1 Thaler Sede Vacante

Struck to mark the vacancy of the Archbishopric of Cologne following the death of Clemens August of Bavaria in February 1761, this thaler was issued under the authority of the Cathedral Chapter during the interregnum period before a successor could be elected. Sede Vacante issues were a deliberate assertion of the Chapter's temporal and spiritual authority — the right to strike coinage during a vacancy was a privilege jealously guarded and not universally held across the ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire.

Clemens August had held the see for over four decades. His successor, Maximilian Friedrich von Königsegg-Rothenfels, was not elected until April of that same year, leaving a narrow window in which these pieces were produced.