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Denier 'Vierzipfeliger Pfennig'
| Issuer | Bishopric of Constance |
|---|---|
| Year | 1150-1160 |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Schematic facing bust of a bishop rendered in a bold, archaic Romanesque style, with a mitre or ecclesiastical headdress depicted by parallel horizontal lines above the forehead. The face is stylized with large circular eyes, a broad nose, and simplified facial features typical of 12th-century Germanic bracteate-related coinage. A crozier curves over the right shoulder of the figure. The entire design is contained within an irregular flan, with the four-pointed (Vierzipfeliger) form characteristic of this issue. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Blank uniface reverse, as is standard for this type of thin hammered medieval pfennig, with no design, inscription, or decorative element struck on the reverse side. |
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| Additional information |
The "Vierzipfeliger Pfennig" — named for the four pointed lobes produced by a bracteate-adjacent striking technique on undersized flans — belongs to a burst of episcopal coinage in the Upper Rhine region during the mid-twelfth century, when German bishops routinely held minting rights as a direct extension of imperial privilege. The Bishopric of Constance was among the most territorially expansive sees north of the Alps, and its monetary output reflects that reach.
At under 0.4 grams, these pieces circulated in a local economy where fractions of the denier did real transactional work.