The "Vierzipfeliger Pfennig" — the four-pointed or four-cornered pfennig — is a bracteate variant produced in the upper Rhine region during the Hohenstaufen period, when the Landgraviate of Breisgau operated under the broader imperial framework of Frederick II's fragmented German territories. Local minting rights in this region were jealously distributed among ecclesiastical and secular lords, and the Breisgau issues circulated in a zone where Freiburg im Breisgau was only just consolidating its commercial importance after its foundation in the early twelfth century.
The four-zipfel form results from the foil being clipped into a distinctive quatrefoil blank before striking — a regional production choice, not a later modification.
The "Vierzipfeliger Pfennig" — the four-pointed or four-cornered pfennig — is a bracteate variant produced in the upper Rhine region during the Hohenstaufen period, when the Landgraviate of Breisgau operated under the broader imperial framework of Frederick II's fragmented German territories. Local minting rights in this region were jealously distributed among ecclesiastical and secular lords, and the Breisgau issues circulated in a zone where Freiburg im Breisgau was only just consolidating its commercial importance after its foundation in the early twelfth century.
The four-zipfel form results from the foil being clipped into a distinctive quatrefoil blank before striking — a regional production choice, not a later modification.