Denier 'Vierzipfliger'

The Fraumünster in Zürich held imperial minting rights granted by Louis the German in 853, making it one of the earliest ecclesiastical minting authorities in the region. By the mid-eleventh century the abbey was producing bracteate-influenced pfennig types at a moment when southern German coinage was fragmenting rapidly across dozens of competing ecclesiastical and secular authorities. The 'Vierzipfliger' designation — referring to the four-pointed or four-cornered form — identifies a specific die group within this series, catalogued under HMZ with sufficient precision to distinguish it from the abbey's other concurrent pfennig production.