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Bracteate - Bertho IV
| Issuer | Abbey of Fulda (German States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1274-1286 |
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| Reference(s) | Bonh#1372, Berger#2294 |
| Obverse description | Bracteate type struck on a thin uniface flan. Within a beaded inner circle, the enthroned effigy of Abbot Bertho IV is depicted in high relief, seated facing on a horizontal ledge, vested in abbatial robes, holding a crosier upright in his right hand and a book in his left. A globule or sphere ornament appears at each end of the ledge. The surrounding rim bears the partial legend BR H T, with spherical pellets serving as word dividers between the letters. |
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| Reverse description | Plain and featureless, as is characteristic of bracteate coinage, the reverse presents the incuse mirror impression of the obverse design inherent to the single-die hammered striking technique, without any intentional design or legend. |
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| Additional information |
Bertho IV served as Abbot of Fulda from 1274 to 1286, a period when the abbey's temporal authority was under sustained pressure from the surrounding nobility and the bishops of Würzburg. Fulda had held the right to mint since the Carolingian period, and bracteates of this type represent the abbey exercising that privilege at a moment when asserting it carried political weight.
The single-sided fabric was by this point an aging technology in German coinage — thicker pfennigs were already gaining ground in the Rhineland. Fulda's persistence with bracteates into the late thirteenth century reflects conservative regional minting practice rather than innovation.