Pfennig 'Vierzipfliger Pfennig'

The "Vierzipfliger Pfennig" — the four-pointed or four-lobed pfennig — belongs to a broader bracteate-influenced tradition of thin, single-sided or near-single-sided silver coinage that proliferated across the Upper Rhine and Swiss territories from the thirteenth century onward. Schaffhausen's civic minting authority during this period operated in competition with episcopal and noble issues circulating across the same trade routes, making local identification marks essential. The four-lobed flan shape itself served as a regional authenticator as much as any die element.