Coin and medal minting of dioceses and (old) princes in Old Bavaria, Franconia and Swabia

Historical Development

The minting of coins by authorities independent of the Bavarian dukes started in the tenth century with the coins of the Bavarian bishoprics. These first mintages were very similar to the ducal denarii/pennies in terms of design, weight and alloy. From the eleventh century, a growing number of currency authorities, including secular princes, received the right to mint their own coins. Some of the secular and clerical princes from Bavaria minted their coins in their "foreign" territories.

This development led to the loss of a shared standard of denomination and metal alloy. In Augsburg, this standard was given up back in 1061. During the so-called period of the "Regionaler Pfennig" (regional penny) the currency landscape in present Bavaria had already become very diverse. It would take until the late mediaeval period that coinage was put under a set of supra-regional rules. These regional currency contracts ultimately led to the "Reichsmünzordnungen" (imperial currency order), in which shared standards were set for larger denominations.

During this period, several Bavarian cities such as Augsburg, Ratisbon and Nuremberg, started to issue their own coins and medals. Thereby, they ranked during early modern times on the same level as secular currency authorities such as the Hohenzollers in Franconia with the centres in Ansbach and Kulmbach or Bayreuth, as well as with the bishops of Würzburg, Bamberg, Eichstätt, Passau, Freising, Augsburg and Ratisbon.

With the end of the Holy Roman Empire under Napoleon Bonaparte from 1803, this diverse Bavarian-Franconian currency landscape found its end and was absorbed from 1806 in the coins minted by the Kingdom of Bavaria.

The other part collections of "Coins, medals and coin-like objects from Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and the Palatinate in modern times" available on bavarikon

>> This collection is part of the holdings of "Coins, medals and coin-like objects from Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia and the Palatinate in modern times" of the Staatliche Münzsammlung München (State Coin Collection Munich).