8 Heller

The Archbishopric of Cologne operated as both a spiritual and secular principality within the Holy Roman Empire, giving its archbishops the authority to strike coin as territorial rulers. This particular issue dates to the tenure of Joseph Clemens of Bavaria, whose reign was severely disrupted by the War of the Spanish Succession — French forces occupied Bonn in 1703, briefly displacing the electoral court entirely. That the mint produced coin at all during this period is the more interesting fact.