Bracteate Pfennig - Berthold von Leiningen Griffen

Berthold von Leiningen served as Bishop of Bamberg from 1257 until his death in 1285, a tenure marked by persistent conflict with the Hohenzollern burgraves of Nuremberg over territorial jurisdiction in Franconia. These thin, single-sided bracteates were the dominant small-change denomination in central German ecclesiastical territories through the thirteenth century — their extreme thinness a direct consequence of the hammering technique used, which precluded meaningful reverse design. The Griffen type is catalogued distinctly within the CNA sequence, suggesting sufficient die variation or typological difference to warrant separation from other Berthold issues.