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Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger'
| Issuer | Fraumünster, Abbey of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1201-1300 |
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| Composition | Silver (0.37) |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of a crowned or diademed figure, rendered in high medieval hammered style, occupying the central field. The effigy displays a stylized frontal face with clearly delineated features, wearing a crown or diadem with decorative elements visible above the brow. Flanking the bust are elements of the circular Latin legend ZVRICH, the letters distributed around the inner field. A star-like ornament appears above the head, and the whole design is enclosed within a beaded or toothed border characteristic of 13th-century Swiss ecclesiastical coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | ZVRICH |
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| Additional information |
The Fraumünster in Zürich held minting rights granted by Louis the German in 853, making it one of the earliest ecclesiastical mints in the region. The "Vierzipfliger" — named for its four-pointed, cloverleaf-cut flan — is a product of that privilege exercised at its most local and uncompromising: thin, irregular, struck on hand-cut blanks with no pretense of standardization. These bracteate-adjacent pfennigs circulated within a tight regional economy where the abbey's authority was the only monetary reality that mattered.