Pfennig - Bernard II Heiligenkreuz

Bernard II ruled Carinthia from 1202 until his death in 1256, and the Heiligenkreuz pfennigs attributed to his tenure reflect the decentralized minting that characterized the duchy during the first half of the thirteenth century. The Heiligenkreuz attribution connects this issue to the Cistercian abbey of that name, which held minting rights periodically granted by regional lords as economic and ecclesiastical interests overlapped in this corner of the Holy Roman Empire. The CNA classification system — Corpus Nummorum Austriacorum — remains the authoritative reference for these bracteate-adjacent Austrian penny types, where die linkages and weight standards do most of the chronological work.