Albert II ("the Lame") ruled Styria during a period when the Habsburg grip on their Austrian territories was still consolidating after the disputed successions of the early 14th century. His long reign saw the duchy survive the Black Death of 1348–1349, which devastated Styrian towns and almost certainly disrupted mint output at Graz. Small silver pfennigs of this type circulated as the backbone of local trade at a time when larger denominations were rarely seen outside major mercantile transactions.
The Graz mint attribution rests on die studies compiled in the CNA corpus — regional pfennig production was diffuse enough that mint assignments for many Austrian bracteate-adjacent types remained contested well into the 20th century.
Albert II ("the Lame") ruled Styria during a period when the Habsburg grip on their Austrian territories was still consolidating after the disputed successions of the early 14th century. His long reign saw the duchy survive the Black Death of 1348–1349, which devastated Styrian towns and almost certainly disrupted mint output at Graz. Small silver pfennigs of this type circulated as the backbone of local trade at a time when larger denominations were rarely seen outside major mercantile transactions.
The Graz mint attribution rests on die studies compiled in the CNA corpus — regional pfennig production was diffuse enough that mint assignments for many Austrian bracteate-adjacent types remained contested well into the 20th century.