Pfennig - Albert II Graz

Albert II ("the Lame") ruled Styria jointly with his brother Otto and later alone, governing through one of the more administratively stable periods of Habsburgs consolidation in the southeastern duchies. His Graz pfennigs are bracteate-style or near-bracteate pieces struck at the Graz mint, which had become the dominant production center for Styrian coinage by the mid-fourteenth century, displacing earlier activity at Judenburg. The near-28-year bracket of this issue reflects how slowly typological changes moved in regional Austrian pfennig production — individual dies were worked until failure rather than retired on schedule.