Denier Bracteate - Albert / Nikolaus Three dots

The Archbishopric of Riga occupied a peculiar monetary position in the early 13th century: newly established crusader ecclesiastical authority issuing coinage in a territory still being violently converted to Christianity by the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. These thin bracteate deniers, struck on a single die with impressions visible on both faces, represent the earliest phase of organized coinage in the eastern Baltic — a region where German merchants and crusading clergy were simultaneously building churches and trade infrastructure. The attribution to the Albert/Nikolaus period spans bishops Albert I of Buxhoeveden, founder of Riga, and his successors through Nikolaus.