Denier Bracteate

Bracteates of this period were a distinctly German solution to a silver shortage: by striking a single-sided coin on an exceptionally thin flan, mints could produce more pieces from the same weight of metal. The technique, widespread across the Empire's northern and eastern territories from roughly 1130 onward, created coins so fragile that survival in any condition is genuinely uncommon. By the mid-thirteenth century, many regional lords were recalling and restriking bracteates annually, collecting a fee in the process — a practice that systematically destroyed earlier issues.