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Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger'
| Issuer | Habsburg-Laufenburg, Counts of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1225-1270 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round with 4 pinches |
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| Obverse description | Lion passant to left in high relief, rendered in the Romanesque style typical of 13th-century Upper Rhenish bracteate coinage. The mane is indicated by a series of pellets or dots, and the tail is raised and curled in a pronounced S-shape. The body exhibits a schematic, stylised form characteristic of medieval heraldic lion depictions. The field is plain, and the coin is bordered by a beaded rim. The characteristic four-pinched ('Vierzipfliger') flan shape frames the design. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface issue; the reverse is blank, showing only the incuse impression of the obverse design as a result of the hammered striking technique on a thin silver flan. |
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| Additional information |
The "Vierzipfliger" — named for its characteristic four-pointed flan shape produced by cutting square blanks and striking them unevenly — belongs to the bracteate-adjacent tradition of the Upper Rhine, where competing ecclesiastical and secular mints produced an extraordinary diversity of thin silver pfennigs within a remarkably compressed geography. The Counts of Habsburg-Laufenburg represent a collateral branch that diverged from the main Habsburg line following the division of Rudolf II's inheritance in 1232, giving this issue a historically brief window of autonomous minting before the line's eventual absorption.