| 表面の説明 |
Facing bust of a bishop or archbishop rendered in a stylized Romanesque manner, wearing a mitre and liturgical vestments, positioned centrally within the coin field. The figure holds a crozier to one side, with the design exhibiting the bold, somewhat crude relief characteristic of early 13th-century Austrian hammered coinage. A partial Latin legend runs along the outer margin, partially legible as AoSoSV[...]EpI, likely referencing an episcopal title. The irregular flan and variable strike are typical of Friesach-type pfennigs of this period. |
Friesach pfennigs — the broad, thin bracteate-style denars struck in Carinthia from the late twelfth century — became the dominant trade currency across the eastern Alpine region for well over a century, circulating from the Adriatic coast into Hungary and the Balkans. The Archbishop of Salzburg and the Duke of Carinthia contested minting rights in the region repeatedly, and many surviving pieces resist clean attribution precisely because multiple authorities copied each other's types without scruple.
The "undetermined" classification here is honest: Luschin himself acknowledged that distinguishing ducal from episcopal issues within this type group often requires die-linkage studies rather than typology alone.