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I left hanging for several weeks the Bulletin of the French Society of Numismatics in January 2008 before finding the time to read. That is fact and I was not disappointed all its content focused on medieval numismatics (which I was sorry he could not attend the meeting which gave rise to these exchanges).
FYI, here are two papers

• SACCOCCI (Andrea), "Vergil and the patrons: a pagan in the coinage Bishop of Mantua (twelfth to fourteenth century)," BSFN , 2008, Vol. 63, No. 1, p. 2-12
• CHAREYRON (Regis), "A penny unpublished Pastor of Sarrat, archbishop of Embrun in 1338 to 1350, BSFN , 2008, Vol. 63, No. 1, p. 12-14

Both are extremely interesting, but the former contains mainly a reflection on the "right" way (as legitimate) to decrypt numismatic iconography. I beg to transcribe those passages that I endorse:
"It must be said that the currency, the legal profile, is an object that performs its functions (unit of account, medium of exchange, etc.. Even in the private domain (which is not subject to direct control of the state) with "force of law", that is to say that the public use of this object is a guaranteed share, the other made mandatory by a State. Therefore, everything that is printed is intended to indicate and make them identifiable to the powers of money to perform such functions [...]. In other words, in simplest terms, I think the legends and monetary representations must satisfy for the money, the same function as the punches on the sets of scales for public use, as well as stamps, signatures and subscriptions for notarial documents [...]. Monetary authorities, of course, reflect this and therefore insert into the iconography of the currency of the elements that allow [one side] to immediately identify those responsible for each issue, one made more difficult forgery.
"Money, finally, also a function economic justifies its existence, so its type is strongly conditioned by this function, it is never arbitrary. As a result many iconographic choices, once met the requirements listed above, can be simply justified by the need to imitate more or less faithful to the type of any currency experiencing great popularity.
[...] "I think that in medieval times, especially before the fourteenth century, the aspects we have mentioned above seem to justify almost all types of monetary certified. It is in this area, primarily legal and then economic, that we should seek the explanation of choice epigraphic or iconographic not yet clarified, by booking at another time interpretations of the symbolic function. "

So if we are to interpret the iconography of a currency, we must first begin by explaining how it meets the legal constraints (identify the issuer) and economic (money to help fit into the movement of other currencies) before want to explain religious or esoteric. This

joined exactly the comments that I have done for my thesis: student initially religious iconography on coins, I was struck by the ubiquity of the phenomenon of imitation (more or less free) which explained some of the figures of saints, much more than the religiosity of the place transmitter.