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Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger Löwenpfennig'
| Issuer | Habsburg-Laufenburg, Counts of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1251-1300 |
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| Value | 1 Pfennig |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | A stylized lion passant to left, rendered in a crude archaic manner reminiscent of an ape-like figure, with a pronounced curling tail raised over its back and exaggerated forelimbs. The beast is depicted in low relief within a plain raised inner circle. The overall design is characteristic of late 13th-century Upper Rhenish bracteate-related pfennig coinage, with bold but simplified modeling typical of hammered minor silver. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface issue; the reverse is blank, showing only the incuse mirror impression of the obverse design as a result of the single-die hammered striking technique. |
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| Additional information |
The "Vierzipfliger Löwenpfennig" — four-pointed lion pfennig — belongs to a dense cluster of bracteate-influenced thin silver issues produced by the fragmented Habsburg collateral line seated at Laufenburg on the Rhine. The Laufenburg branch split from the main Habsburg line in the mid-thirteenth century following the inheritance partition of 1239, and their coinage reflects a county perpetually squeezed between more powerful neighbors. At 0.19 g, these were struck at the absolute lower threshold of workable silver, and losses to clipping were effectively irrelevant — there was nothing left to clip.