1 Pfennig 'Elefantenpfennig'

The "Elefantenpfennig" takes its collector name from the creature stamped on the coin, which medieval die-cutters in the Upper Rhine region rendered from secondhand description rather than direct observation — producing an animal that bears only passing resemblance to any elephant known to zoology. These bracteate-style pfennigs circulated in the Breisgau during a period when the Landgraviate's monetary authority was increasingly contested by the Habsburgs, who were consolidating control over precisely this stretch of southwestern Germany throughout the first half of the fourteenth century.