Middle Ages

Hungarian denarius,
András I (Andrew) (1046 to 1060) 

Bracteate – Hohlpfennig (exceptionally thin silver penny),
Otto I (1157 to 1184), Brandenburg 

The eastern Frankish realm remained largely unaffected by the development of the Carolingian money system for quite some time. While trade thrived along the Danube, coins played a subordinate role. Payment was effected chiefly by barter, or metal bars were used. The Tolls of Raffelstetin, a customs order imposed from 904 to 906, regulated trade between the eastern Bavarian region and the neighboring Slavic peoples. It defined customs duties for traffic with divisible goods in terms of commodities, and in terms of money for indivisible goods such as slaves or livestock. The customs duty for a female slave or a stallion was set at 1 tremissis (10 pfennigs) and at 1 saiga (5 pfennigs) for a male slave or a mare. However, as money circulation was not regulated at the time, these figures did not denote actual coins, but instead represented a figure denoting a certain amount of precious metal. 

Coins did not become more widespread in the eastern Frankish borderlands until the end of the 10th century and during the 11th century. The new pilgrimage route along the Danube was instrumental in reviving the money system in the area. For one thing, the flow of money to the area from the east was facilitated; moreover, the Christian pilgrims brought money to Austria from the west. Underweight pfennigs spread from Burgenland through lower Austria from Hungary, where Ístvan I (997 to 1038) had begun to mint coins in 1010. German denars were brought to Austria in the wake of wars between Hungarian and Germanic rulers.

30 pfennigs = 1 “long” schilling.
The Carolingian currency system specified 20 schillings to the Carolingian pound and 12 pfennigs to the schilling. 

Krems pfennig,
Frederick I (1194 to 1198)
or Leopold VI (1198 to 1230) 

Pfennig, Neunkirchen mint,
Formbach abbey, around 1145 

The first coins minted on Austrian territory were produced by the Arnulf, Duke of Bavaria (911 to 937). To finance the cost of the war in his conflict with Konrad I, King of the Franks (911 to 918), he had coins struck in Salzburg in 916 on the Regensburg model. Not until 1010, a hundred years later, were coins minted on a regular basis, when King Henry II ceded half the right of coinage to Salzburg’s Archbishop Hartwig (991 to 1023). 

The denars struck in Salzburg were valued according to the Regensburg monetary standard (at the end of the 9th century, Regensburg had been established as the first Carolingian mint east of the Rhine and occupied a leading position until about 1200). Unlike the Carolingian division of the pound into 20 schillings at 12 pfennigs each, the Regensburg system divided the pound into eight “long” schillings of 30 pfennigs each, probably because Byzantine and Arabic gold coins were still used in trade along the Danube, and these coins were equal in value to 30 Carolingian denars. 

The Babenbergs, the margraves of Austria since 976, probably started to mint pfennigs around 1110 to 1120 in Krems under Leopold III (1095 to 1136). In addition to the mint in Krems, a mint was run in Neunkirchen by the dukes of Formbach-Pütten and the clerics of the monastery at Formbach. After the Formbach dynasty died out, the mint was passed on to the Styrian Otakars and was moved to Bad Fischau. 

In the second half of the 12th century, the Krems pfennig became the most common means of payment in the Danube region. This coin looked very much like its model, the Regensburg denar.

Friesach pfennig,
Eberhard II,
archbischop of Salzburg (1200 to 1246) 

Friesach pfennig,
Pettau on Drau mint,
Eberhard II, archbischop of Salzburg (1200 to 1246) and Leopold VI (1198 to 1230)

 

Apart from the Krems pfennig, the Friesach pfennig became an important trade coin in the 12th century. The mint at Friesach, established between 1125 and 1130 by the Archbishopric of Salzburg (Archbishop Konrad I, 1106 to 1147) for the southern regions, struck a denar that gained recognition as specie in its own right. Unlike the Krems pfennig, which was based on the Rhenish monetary standard, the Friesach pfennig followed the Cologne monetary standard. 

The coins minted at Friesach established themselves in the economic region Carinthia, Styria and Friaul, becoming the first trade coin in southeastern Europe. They were used as far east- and southward as Hungary and Croatia in the first half of the 13th century, where the denars from Carinthia were soon copied and became a main currency. The Mongolian invasion of 1241 ended this era. As trade activities dwindled in the East, the Friesach pfennig disappeared from circulation. 

In the West, however, the coin remained in use and served a considerable number of ecclesiastic and worldly princes alike – bishops and archbishops in Salzburg, Gurk, Bamberg and Aquilea as well as the dukes of Styria and Carinthia and the counts of Görz – as a model for coins of their own. A shortage of silver, the competition of the Aquilean pfennig (minted by the patriarchs of Aquilea) and the coinage policy of the Habsburgs, who had been enfeoffed with Carinthia and Krain since 1335, finally led to the closure of the mint of Friesach in the mid-14th century.

Vienna pfennig "Böckler", Frederick II (1230 to 1246) 

Vienna pfennig,
Albrecht II (1330 to 1358) 

Until the 12th century, coins were needed above all for exports; daily transactions were generally barter transactions. As the economy began to operate increasingly on the principle of the division of labor and as cities began to grow, money started to acquire more and more importance for regional trade. Municipal records show that even in Austria under Babenberg rule, money payments to feudal lords began to replace payments in kind. The growing monetarization of society ushered in a new phase in the history of coins. Monetary systems became regionalized. The denar, formerly used for external trade and exports, was replaced by the regional pfennig. New monetary borders came into existence, within which the rulers with coinage rights tried to enforce the compulsory, exclusive use of their own coins. 

Under Babenberg rule, the Vienna pfennig was accorded the role of regional money used in Austria. The Vienna pfennig came into its own when the mint was moved from Krems to Vienna at the end of the 12th century. It served as a means of payment for daily monetary transactions and remained a monetary unit even when large foreign coins were used to settle the growing volume of trade transactions – gold coins such as the Venetian or Florentine ducat and large silver coins like the Prague groschen. In the course of the 14th century, it became established as a currency in nearly the entire area covered by modern-day Austria, with the exception of Tyrol and Vorarlberg.

Apprehension of the English king Richard I, the Lion-hearted, by Leopold V (1177 to 1194) in Erdberg 

Enns pfennig, Leopold VI (1198 to 1230) or Frederick II (1230 to 1246) 

Wiener Neustadt pfennig, Leopold VI (1198 to 1230) or Frederick II (1230 to 1246) 

Because the Danube area has no precious metal deposits, the Babenberg mints had no silver within their own territory to mint. This may also have been the reason the first mint under Babenberg rule was established in Krems so late. The Krems mint was replaced by the new mint in Vienna in 1193–94. Apart from the purchase of Styria in 1192, which raised the status of the more conveniently located Vienna, the ransom the Babenbergs extorted for the release of the English king Richard I, the Lion-hearted, played an important role in the establishment of the Vienna mint. 

On return from the Crusades, Richard the Lion-hearted’s identity was discovered because he was carrying gold coins, and he was apprehended at Erdberg near Vienna. Duke Leopold V (1117 to 1194) and Emperor Henry VI (1190 to 1197) demanded 100,000 marks in silver, Cologne-weight coins as ransom, an exorbitant amount at the time, considering that the Austrian duke’s annual revenue from taxes and duties amounted to about 60,000 marks. His share of the ransom, 50,000 marks, or about 12 tons of silver, provided temporary relief for the chronic silver shortage. Whatever portion of the ransom was not used to strike coins at the Vienna mint went into the restoration of the reinforcements at Enns and Hainburg, the expansion of Vienna and the foundation of Wiener Neustadt. 

Apart from the mint at Vienna, the mint at Enns, which was also within the sovereignty of the Babenbergs, struck Vienna pfennigs before Duke Frederick II, called the Quarrelsome, (1230 to 1246) established a third mint at Wiener Neustadt during his conflict with Emperor Frederick II. Each of these mints put a different image on the back of their coins – Vienna an eagle, a lion and a unicorn, Enns an angel’s bust, a stag and a panther, Wiener Neustadt a griffin and a dragon.

Graz pfennig, Przemysl Ottokar II (1251 to 1276) 

Graz pfennig,
Leopold VI (1195 to 1230) 

Sketch of a Graz pfennig, Otakar II (1260 to 1276) (Arnold Luschin von Ebengreuth) 

Next to the Vienna pfennig, Styrian coins flourished from the second half of the 13th century, most likely because the supply of precious metal improved. Styria’s own silver deposits at Oberzeiring were exploited even before the Habsburg reign. A second Styrian mint next to that at Graz was established at Oberzeiring in 1265. Moreover, Styria had access to silver from Hungarian mines, because it was under Hungarian administration from 1246, when the last of the Babenberg rulers, Duke Frederick II, died. In addition, the policy of King Otakar II of Bohemia (1251 to 1276) helped intensify monetary transactions in the region, as he had been enfeoffed with Styria in 1261 and was particularly intent on fostering the development of towns and markets. 

The Graz pfennigs produced in the mints at Graz and Oberzeiring established themselves as a local currency in its own right. These coins, initially modeled on the Friesach pfennig, bore the inscriptions “MUNE GRETZ” and “SCHILT VON STEIR.” They are considered the oldest coins in the southern German region to bear inscriptions in the vernacular. 

Faced with the Hungarian ban on silver exports in 1325 and the depletion of silver deposits at Oberzeiring, the Styrian mints found it increasingly difficult to continue operation, so that other currencies gained ground toward the end of the 14th century, above all the Vienna pfennig, but also Bavarian pfennigs. In 1409 the rise of these other currencies prompted Duke Ernst of Styria to order the Styrian mints to strike coins identical in fineness, weight and denomination to those produced in Vienna.