Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger Löwenpfennig'

The Laufenburg line of the Habsburgs split from the main family following the partition of Rudolf II's holdings in 1232, leaving the Laufenburg counts with Rhine bridgehead revenues but little else in the way of monetary infrastructure. This bracteate-derived pfennig type was struck as the line struggled to assert regional economic presence against the rising power of the elder Habsburg branch — the same branch that would, within a decade of this coin's striking, produce Rudolf I, elected King of Germany in 1273.

The Laufenburg counts were extinct by 1314, absorbed through inheritance. Surviving pfennigs attributable to this specific branch are few.