Denier Bracteate

Dömitz, a small fortified town on the Elbe in what is now Mecklenburg, issued bracteates during the second half of the thirteenth century under conditions typical of fragmented north German monetary authority — dozens of tiny lordships and towns struck their own thin-flan silver as regional trade demanded local coinage. At roughly half a gram, these pieces were punched from sheet silver so thin that any design pressed on one side reads in reverse on the other, making doubled or ghost impressions a structural inevitability rather than a minting error.