Denier - Adalbero II

Adalbero II held the see of Basel from 999 until his death in 1025, a period when the Ottonian emperors routinely granted minting rights to loyal ecclesiastical princes as a means of binding the church hierarchy to imperial authority. His mint at Basel operated under precisely this arrangement, a privilege confirmed under Otto III.

HMZ 1#186H is among the more precisely attributed types in this bishop's coinage, though the series as a whole presents significant challenges — episcopal deniers of this region and period share obverse and reverse conventions so closely that die attribution often hinges on a single letter variant.