Catalog
Pfennig - Dietrich Posthumous
| Issuer | County of Formbach (Austrian States) |
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| Year | 1140-1165 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Central design featuring a quadrilateral interlaced loop arranged in the form of a cross, with a stylized human head occupying each of the four corners. A small ring is placed at the center of the composition. The entire device is enclosed within a horseshoe-shaped beaded border, characteristic of 12th-century Austrian bracteate-influenced coinage. The execution is typical of the crude but expressive hammered technique of the period. |
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| Reverse description | Forward-facing bust of an abbot rendered in a schematic, Romanesque style, occupying the central field of the flan. A small ring appears in the field beside the bust, likely serving as a decorative or symbolic element. The figure is depicted with rudimentary facial features and vestments suggested by linear engraving. The design is contained within a horseshoe-shaped beaded border consistent with the obverse treatment. The overall style reflects the provincial die-cutting conventions of mid-12th-century Austrian ecclesiastical coinage. |
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| Additional information |
Dietrich II of Formbach died in 1090, and the county passed through inheritance disputes before effectively dissolving into the hands of the Bavarian Wittelsbachs and the Salzburg archbishopric by the mid-twelfth century. Coins struck in his name decades after his death were a deliberate political act — posthumous coinages of this kind asserted dynastic continuity and territorial claim during precisely the period when Formbach's independence was being dismembered. The CNA B52b designation places this among a small, well-documented group of bracteate-influenced pfennigs from the dissolving Austrian frontier counties.