Pfennig - Johann II Senn von Münsingen

Johann II Senn von Münsingen governed the Bishopric of Basel through one of the more turbulent stretches of 14th-century Rhenish politics, including the catastrophic Black Death years of 1348–1351, which gutted the region's population and disrupted minting activity across the Upper Rhine. Small bracteate-style pfennigs of this type circulated in a monetary environment where episcopal and civic coinage competed directly — Basel's burghers were aggressively expanding their own minting rights throughout the 1350s and 60s, a friction that would ultimately erode episcopal monetary authority in the city well before the Reformation.