Pfennig - Eberhard II Friesach

Friesach pennies dominated Alpine trade circuits for over a century, and Salzburg's issues under Eberhard II were among the most aggressively circulated. The Archbishop — a sharp political operator who navigated the investiture conflicts between the papacy and the Hohenstaufen emperors with considerable skill — controlled the Friesach mint at a moment when its output was being copied by mints across Carinthia, Styria, and even into Hungary and the Balkans. The imitations themselves became a recognized currency class.

CNA Cu11 places this type within a sequence distinguished by subtle die characteristics that Luschin spent considerable effort untangling in the nineteenth century.