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Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger'
| Issuer | Habsburg-Laufenburg, Counts of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1375-1400 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.32 g |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Reverse description | The reverse is blank, as is characteristic of this type of small hammered pfennig struck on a thin flan, where the obverse design may have left a faint incuse impression but no intentional reverse design or legend was applied. |
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| Additional information |
The Vierzipfliger — "four-cornered" — takes its name from the distinctive clover-leaf flan shape produced when a round blank was struck with a square die, forcing the metal out at four points. This was not an aesthetic choice but a practical one: it allowed quick visual authentication by market traders who could identify genuine pieces by outline alone without weighing them. The Habsburg-Laufenburg line, a cadet branch that had split from the main Habsburg dynasty in the mid-thirteenth century, controlled a strategically awkward pocket of territory along the upper Rhine and was extinct by 1408.