Pfennig - Bernard II Heiligenkreuz

Bernard II ruled Carinthia from 1202 until his death in 1256, and his coinage reflects the period when the Duchy was navigating competing pressures from the Babenberg dukes of Austria and the ambitions of the Andechs-Meranians. The Heiligenkreuz pfennigs — bracteate-influenced thin silvers associated with the mint at or near the Heiligenkreuz monastery circuit — represent one of the more localised issuing traditions in the Austrian duchies, where ecclesiastical and ducal minting rights frequently overlapped without clean resolution.