171, Lot: 414. Estimate $100. Sold for $82. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

GERMANY, Saxony. Circa 1070-1100. AR Pfenning (15mm, 1.01 g). Bishop’s crozier surrounded by pellets / Cross with pellets and crescents in quarters. Gumowski 59; Dannenberg 1341. VF. Raised rims of the Randpfennig type. Possibly struck at Halle-Giebichenstein or Merseberg.

The early pfennige of Saxony have seen a number of different attributions over the years. Some were known as “wendenpfennige” from the native Slavic peoples of the eastern Germany and Pomerania and others as “randpfennige” (rim pfennigs) from their up-raised edges and attributed to the early Polish bishoprics and kingdoms. More recent studies have concluded they were civic issues of various eastern cities, with places such as Bremen, Halle-Giebichenstein, Meissen, Merseberg, Naumburg being cited as points of origin.