Denier Bracteate - Albert I

Albert I of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel ruled during the prolonged fragmentation of the Welf territories, a process of dynastic partition that generated an enormous proliferation of small regional coinages across Lower Saxony in the mid-thirteenth century. Bracteates of this period were struck on flans so thin that double-sided coinage was mechanically impossible — the entire design had to read from one face, pressed into metal barely thicker than foil.

Berger 708 and Denicke 174 place this piece within a well-documented but physically fragile series; genuine survivors without cracks or splits along the edges are considerably scarcer than catalog frequency suggests.