THE MARKSTETTEN COIN HOARD

On 18 June 2017, a coin hoard was discovered near Markstetten: at one point after 1228, an unknown person buried a clay vessel, which contained exactly 560 pfennigs. Except for one piece, all pfennigs were minted in Regensburg. At the beginning of the 13th century, the town was not yet the free imperial city as we mainly recall it today, but a powerful bishopric, and several parties tried to control it, including the noble members of the cathedral chapter, rich citizens and the Bavarian duke.

The major part of the Markstetten Coin Hoard consists of two coin types: type Emmerig 206 with 255 specimens, and type Emmerig 207 with 292 specimens. Until now, both of them could not be dated more specifically than around 1225, an indication that had been laid out by Hubert Emmerig in his work Der Regensburger Pfennig published in 1993. Eugen Voronin, who examined the Markstetten Coin Hoard from a numismatic and historical perspective, was able to date the coin types even more precisely. In order to understand his reasoning, we have to recall the political situation in Regensburg.

It would be wrong to assume that there was only one ruler of Regensburg in the late Middle Ages. Quite the opposite: many parties tried to assert their influence in the city. First, there was the cathedral chapter, which consisted of later born sons of noblemen who tried to promote the interests of their families. The cathedral chapter elected the bishop, and the decisive element was not the priestly vocation of the candidate but the power constellation regarding everyday life politics. Which noble family managed to convince enough canons to support them in order to make their candidate succeed?

Pfennig around 1226/7. Emmerig 207.

The Legal Background
We wouldn’t know any of this if Eugen Voronin, an employee of Künker am Dom, had not scholarly analyzed the hoard. The coin hoard and the coordinates were previously reported to the Bavarian State Coin Collection in Munich and to all responsible institutions, including the Bavarian State Office for Monument Protection, to be examined and scholarly recorded. None of the authorized institutions exercised their right of first refusal, so now that the find has been scholarly recorded and evaluated, it can be offered for sale to the public.

Hubert Ruß, Managing Director of Künker am Dom comments: It was not only a legal, but also a moral and historical obligation for us to inform the honest finder about the necessary steps and to accompany him through the entire process. In Bavaria, the so-called ‘Hadrian’s Division’ has been applied since centuries. This law goes back to a roman emperor of the middle of the 2nd century AD. It states that the discoverer and the landowner share the hoard, and both are obliged to report it. In addition, the Bavarian state demands that every hoard be scholarly documented for posterity and, if it is a find of special importance, to purchase it. This was not the case with the Markstetten Coin Hoard. However, we decided to offer the find only after it has been scholarly reviewed, and to offer it as one lot hoping that a private or public buyer will preserve it as an ensemble for posterity.

To read the complete article, see:
The Markstetten Coin Hoard: Witness to a Political Thriller in the High Middle Ages (https://www.kuenker.de/en/information/presseinformationen/aktuelle-mitteilungen/353)

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