Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger Löwenpfennig'

The Laufenburg line of the Habsburg family held their Rhine crossing rights jealously — the town's tolls were among the most lucrative on the upper Rhine, and small silver bracteate-style pfennigs like this one functioned as the practical currency of that traffic. When the Habsburgs of Laufenburg were gradually absorbed into the main Austrian line through the 14th century, their local coinage traditions disappeared with them.