Denier anonyme au saint Ulric

Ulrich of Augsburg, canonized in 993, holds the distinction of being the first person formally canonized by a pope — John XV — rather than through the older process of local episcopal declaration. The Augsburg bishops who struck these deniers were trading directly on that prestige, invoking his name without their own on the coin at a moment when the see was deeply entangled in the Investiture Controversy between Henry IV and Gregory VII.

Augsburg's bishop during much of this striking window, Siegfried, was an imperial loyalist — a politically dangerous position in the 1080s.