Catalog
| Issuer | Duchy of Merania (Austrian States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1170-1180 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Schematized frontal head or face in low relief, enclosed within a beaded inner circle, the whole surrounded by four outward-arching lobes or arches forming a quatrefoil frame. Small decorative elements, possibly stylized busts or foliate motifs, are positioned between each arch. The design is characteristic of the crude, anonymous bracteate-influenced coinage of the Bishopric of Brixen in the late Romanesque period, with strongly abstracted facial features rendered in a flat, primitive style. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Brixen — now Bressanone in South Tyrol — sat at a critical Alpine crossing point, and its bishops had exercised mint rights since the eleventh century. The Duchy of Merania itself was a fragmented, geographically peculiar entity, its territories scattered across what is now Bavaria, Istria, and the eastern Alps rather than forming any coherent territorial block. Dating anonymous bracteate-influenced pfennigs from this region to a decade-level window relies almost entirely on comparative die studies and hoard evidence, as no documentary mint records survive from Brixen for this period.