12 Pfennig

The Cathedral Chapter of Münster issued copper pfennig coinage during one of the most destructive periods in German history — the Thirty Years' War began in 1618 and turned Westphalia into a principal theater of conflict and religious contestation. Chapter coinage of this kind reflects the fragmented monetary authority of the Holy Roman Empire, where ecclesiastical bodies retained the right to strike small-denomination copper for local circulation even as the broader currency system deteriorated badly under wartime conditions. The Peace of Westphalia, signed in Münster itself in 1648, came too late for this series.