Denier - Anno II

This denier falls within the episcopate of Anno II, one of the most politically consequential figures in eleventh-century Germany. Anno effectively seized control of the German crown in 1062 when he kidnapped the twelve-year-old King Henry IV from his mother Agnes at Kaiserwerth — rowing the boy off in a boat while Agnes reportedly leapt into the Rhine after him. The coup handed real power to the princes and made Cologne's archbishop a dominant force in imperial affairs for over a decade, a position reflected in the coinage authority he exercised throughout this period.