2 Pfennigs

Hildesheim occupied an awkward position throughout much of this period — a prince-bishopric with its own coinage rights sitting inside the Holy Roman Empire, perpetually navigating tensions between the ecclesiastical administration and the city council. Small billon pieces like this circulated alongside the city's larger issues and the coinage of neighboring Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, which increasingly dominated the region's petty cash economy. The long date range suggests production was intermittent rather than continuous, likely tied to periodic shortages of small change rather than any sustained mint program.