Sachsenpfennigs of different types named after their designs which include the Holzkirchenpfennig ("wooden church"), Balkenkreuzpfennig ("bar cross"), Kleeblattkreuzpfennig ("clover cross") and Krummstabpfennig ("crooked staff")
The Sachsenpfennig ("Saxon pfennig"), sometimes called the Wendenpfennig or the Hochrandpfennig ("high rim pfennig"),[1] was a well-known coin of the pfennig type minted in the eastern part of the
Stem Duchy of Saxony during the 10th and 11th centuries. It had an upturned perimeter and, next to the
Otto Adelheid Pfennig was the most common pfennig type of its time.[2]Sachsenpfennigs are the oldest
coins minted in
Saxony. Its different names represent a lack of clarity within mediaeval
numismatics about the coin.
Names
Julius Menadier called the pfennig type of the 10th and 11th centuries with an upturned rim the Sachsenpfennig because it was minted in eastern Saxony.[3]
The older name Wendenpfennig ("Wend pfennig") is inappropriate as a pfennig that the
Wends minted, since they still regarded the coins as
ingots or so-called
hacksilver and did not mint any coins themselves. According to Menadier, the use of hacksilver and coins are mutually exclusive. East of the Elbe among the
Slavs (Wends) and Scandinavians (
Vikings), the merchants had developed a so-called bullion economy. When paying, silver was cut into the form of
ingots, jewellery and coins and weighed with scales and weights.[4] Across the whole of the Slavic lands, hoards of silver weighing several kilogrammes have occasionally survived; they comprise German and West European denarii,
Orientaldirhems and
Scandinavian jewellery. The pieces were mostly chopped up, broken or cut up.[5]
In Polish and English texts, the term cross denier (Polish: denary krzyzowe, German: Kreuzdenare) appears. An indisputable modern name for these coins is Hochrandpfennig ("high rim pfennig")[6] or Randpfennig ("rim pfennig").
The different names indicate an unclear position in medieval numismatics. Their anonymity and their seemingly primitive coinage led to them being regarded as a separate coin group outside of the normal imperial coinage.[7]
Coin standard
The oldest Sachsenpfennigs were based on the
minting standard of the
Carolingian monetary reform under which 240 pfennigs were minted from the
Carolingian pound of silver weighing 367 g. Twelve pfennigs made one schilling.[8] At that time, the schilling was not an actual coin, but the name of a dozen pfennigs, so it was just a
unit of account. In theory, the pfennig weighed 1.5g, however, of the coins that have been found, the lightest were 0.95 g, the heaviest 1.90 g.[9] From Roman antiquity, the
talentum was adopted for the pound, solidus for the schilling and denarius for the pfennig. The
mintmasters used mine-pure silver as the minting metal. In addition, circulating
Romandenarii were melted down. Only pfennigs and 1⁄2pfennigs were minted. The 1⁄2pfennigs were called obole (Hälblinge = "halflings"). 1⁄4pfennigs (fertones) are mentioned, but they were only
coins of account or were made by division, not by stamping.[10]
People were clearly happy to check the authenticity of a coin by biting it, as numerous deformed coins from this period show: if the metal gave way, the coin was genuine, if the tooth gave way, iron had been bitten.[11]
Friedrich von Schrötter, N. Bauer, K. Regling, A. Suhle, R. Vasmer, J. Wilcke: Wörterbuch der Münzkunde, Berlin 1970 (Nachdruck der Originalausgabe von 1930), S. 580.
Kaiserin Adelheid und ihre Klostergründung in Selz. Referate der wissenschaftlichen Tagung in Landau und Selz vom 15. bis 17. Oktober 1999. Herausgegeben von Franz Staab und Thorsten Unger 2005. Darin: Bernd Kluge: ATHALHET, ATEAHLHT und ADELDEIDA. Das Rätsel der Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige.
Numismatischer Verlag Künker: 1.000 Jahre Europäische Münzgeschichte – Glanz und Faszination des Mittelalters, Osnabrück 2012. Darin: Sachsenpfennige S. 137 (Magdeburg) und Otto-Adelheid-Pfennige, S. 107/108 (hier aus dem Raum Goslar). ([2], p. 140, at
Google Books).