4 Pfennig - Francis George of Schönborn

Francis George of Schönborn-Heusenstamm served as Archbishop-Elector of Trier from 1729 until his death in 1756, one of the last prince-bishops to exercise meaningful secular authority over his territory before the upheavals of the late eighteenth century dismantled the ecclesiastical principalities of the Holy Roman Empire entirely. This small copper issue belongs to the closing years of his reign's monetary activity, struck as the Empire's petty coinage landscape was growing increasingly chaotic with debased imitations circulating from neighboring states.