Catalog
Denier Anonymous
| Issuer | Bishopric of Merseburg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1000 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pfennig |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
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| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A four-petalled cloverleaf or cross-fourchée motif is centrally positioned within the field, its rounded lobes forming a quatrefoil arrangement suggestive of a stylized cross. The design is enclosed within a beaded inner circle, itself surrounded by a plain outer rim. Faint traces of a degenerate or pseudo-legend may be present around the inner circle, consistent with anonymous episcopal bracteate-related coinage of the period. The reverse displays the typical flat, lightly struck character of early medieval German hammered silver. |
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| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | 1000: ND (1000) |
| Additional information |
The Bishopric of Merseburg had an unusual institutional history: it was dissolved in 973 by Otto II, who redistributed its territories to neighboring sees, then restored in 968 — sources conflict on the exact sequencing — before being definitively re-established in 981 under Bishop Giselher. Anonymous deniers of this period reflect precisely that administrative instability; episcopal minting authority was asserted and reasserted as each restoration required fresh demonstration of ecclesiastical privilege. The absence of a named bishop on this issue is not an anomaly but a deliberate convention common to Ottonian episcopal minting, where the see itself, rather than its incumbent, held the coinage right.