Denier - Berenguer de Wetterau

Berenguer served as Bishop of Basel during a period of acute tension between the imperial episcopate and the papacy that would soon erupt into the Investiture Controversy. His coinage rights derived directly from Otto I's grant to the see of Basel in 999, one of the earliest such imperial privileges extended to an ecclesiastical authority in the upper Rhine region. The mint at Basel operated under close imperial supervision throughout this period, and Berenguer's deniers reflect the monetarily dependent relationship between the Salian court and its episcopal clients.