Otto II ruled Bavaria during a period of intense fragmentation in the Holy Roman Empire following the death of Frederick II's early consolidation efforts. These thin bracteate-style pfennigs were the workhorse of local exchange in a duchy where toll rights and market privileges were jealously guarded by competing ecclesiastical and secular lords. The dies were cut by local moneyers whose workshops shifted with political control of individual minting towns.
Otto II ruled Bavaria during a period of intense fragmentation in the Holy Roman Empire following the death of Frederick II's early consolidation efforts. These thin bracteate-style pfennigs were the workhorse of local exchange in a duchy where toll rights and market privileges were jealously guarded by competing ecclesiastical and secular lords. The dies were cut by local moneyers whose workshops shifted with political control of individual minting towns.