Pfennig - Bernard II Heiligenkreuz

Bernard II, Duke of Carinthia from the House of Sponheim, issued this bracteate-style pfennig during a period of sustained conflict with the Archbishopric of Salzburg over territorial rights in the eastern Alpine passes. The Heiligenkreuz attribution links the type to the Cistercian abbey of that name, reflecting the duke's deliberate patronage of monastic institutions as a counterweight to episcopal influence. Sponheim ducal coinage from this window is poorly documented in contemporary sources, making die-linked survivors essential to any reconstruction of the mint's output sequence.