Pfennig 'Vierzipfeliger Pfennig'

Colmar received its imperial city charter from Rudolf of Habsburg in 1273, just two years before this issue. The timing is almost certainly not coincidental — municipal coinage was among the earliest assertions of civic autonomy newly-granted cities made, and Colmar was no exception. The four-cornered ("vierzipfelig") flan shape is characteristic of the Upper Rhine bracteate tradition, where thin fabric and irregular clipping were controlled by standardizing the blank's profile rather than its precise weight.