!!!Wiener Pfennig

Wiener Pfennig (Viennese Pfennig), coin emerging from the Kremser 
Pfennig (from around 1110/1120). Around 1193/1194 Leopold V had the 
Babenberg mint moved from Krems (thus: Kremser Pfennig) to Vienna. The 
annual "Muenzverruf", the forging of old valueless coins in order to 
give them the appearance of new ones, was a special feature of the 
classical Wiener Pfennig period, which lasted until the 80s of the 
14%%sup th/% century. It was responsible for the enormous abundance of 
images on the Wiener Pfennig coins. The Wiener Pfennig was widely used 
in the 14%%sup th/% century (Bohemia, Moravia, Hungary, Salzburg, 
Upper Bavaria, Styria, Carinthia); the first half of the 15%%sup th/% 
century was characterised by runaway inflation ("Schinderlingszeit" 
period around 1455: 1 Goldgulden = 240 Wiener Pfennig coins, 1460: 
3,600 Wiener Pfennig coins). The Wiener Pfennig was later replaced by 
the Goldgulden with the Groschen and silver Kreuzer coins as smaller 
denominations; the Pfennig itself was only used as the smallest token 
coin.

!Literature
B. Koch, Beitraege zur Muenz- und Geldgeschichte 
Oesterreichs im Mittelalter, 1972; Geld, 800 Jahre Muenzstaette Wien, 
exhibition catalogue, Vienna 1994.


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