3 Pfennig - John Frederick Charles of Ostein

John Frederick Charles of Ostein served as Archbishop-Elector of Mainz from 1743 until his death in 1763, presiding over the electorate through the grinding disruptions of the Seven Years' War. Mainz itself changed hands between French and Imperial forces during this period, and the small copper issues of 1760–61 were struck against a backdrop of severe monetary disorder across the German states, with debased emergency coinages circulating widely from competing authorities.

Minor copper pfennig fractions from ecclesiastical mints of this period are frequently encountered in poor condition — not from heavy commerce, but from decades of damp storage in church treasuries and estate collections.