Pfennig - Berthold V of Aquileia Gutenwerth

Berthold V, a Bavarian-born member of the Andechs dynasty, held the Patriarchate of Aquileia during a period of intense friction between the papacy and Frederick II's imperial ambitions. His coinage at Gutenwerth — the island mint on the Wörthersee in Carinthia — reflects the patriarchs' determined exercise of regalian rights in a region where ecclesiastical and secular jurisdictions were perpetually contested. The Andechs family's network across the Alpine borderlands gave Berthold unusual political leverage, and his minting activity was as much a declaration of territorial authority as it was a practical monetary function.