Denier Bracteate - Adolphus III

Adolphus III of Holstein-Schaumburg spent much of his reign entangled in the collapse of Henrican power in northern Germany following Henry the Lion's final exile in 1180, a political vacuum that allowed minor counts to assert independent minting rights with unusual confidence. The bracteate format — a single-sided uniface struck on a thin flan — was the dominant small denomination technology across the Saxon and Lower Rhenish mints in this period, not an aesthetic choice but a practical one driven by the shallow relief achievable on such light silver.