2 Heller - Joseph Clemens of Bayern

Joseph Clemens of Bavaria held the archbishopric largely through Wittelsbach dynastic politics rather than ecclesiastical merit, and his tenure was dramatically interrupted when he backed Louis XIV during the War of the Spanish Succession. Expelled from Cologne by 1706 and condemned by the Emperor, he governed in exile from Valenciennes and Lille for nearly a decade while the archdiocese was administered by others. These heller continued to be struck in his name throughout that period.

Billon coinage of this type was already scraping the floor of monetary usefulness by the late seventeenth century — the silver content in a 0.3g piece at this fineness is negligible. Noss remains the definitive reference for Cologne ecclesiastical minor coinage.