Denier Bracteate

Dömitz sits on the Elbe where the river marked a political boundary between competing territorial claims through much of the thirteenth century, and the city's brief minting activity reflects exactly that instability — local lords and ecclesiastical powers issuing thin silver bracteates as much to assert jurisdictional presence as to facilitate trade. At 0.43g, these are among the more fragile survivors of the north German bracteate tradition, struck on a single face from a single die into foil-thin planchets that crack and warp readily.