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1 Pfennig 'Buchstabenpfennig'
| Issuer | Hildesheim, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1362-1392 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Uniface hammered bracteate type. A Gothic capital letter 'T' is rendered in raised relief at the center of the coin field, enclosed within a broad raised ring border that frames the entire design. The letterform is bold and stylized in the Gothic script characteristic of 14th-century Lower Saxon coinage. The irregular flan and thin fabric are typical of small bracteate pfennigs of the period. No legend or additional design elements are present. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Blank reverse, as characteristic of this uniface bracteate type struck on a thin silver flan. The incuse impression of the obverse design is faintly visible as a negative relief, a natural consequence of the single-die hammering technique used in the production of bracteate coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Hildesheim's civic coinage of this period operated in the perpetual tension between the city's merchant interests and the territorial ambitions of the Prince-Bishops, who contested the right to strike coin throughout the fourteenth century. The "Buchstabenpfennig" designation — letter pfennig — derives from the alphabetic or initial-letter devices used to distinguish issues within the series, a practice that allowed the city to manage successive die productions without dating individual strikes.
The thirty-year span assigned to this type reflects numismatic inference rather than documentary precision; no single civic ordinance survives pinning the series to exact years.