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Denier Bracteate - Albert of Brandenburg
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Mainz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1514-1545 |
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| Currency | Thaler |
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| Obverse description | Centrally placed shield of two-fold arms, divided per pale, with the arms of Mainz (wheel) on the dexter side and the Hohenzollern arms (quartered) on the sinister side, rendered in late Gothic style. Above the shield, a Gothic capital letter 'A' — the initial of Archbishop Albert of Brandenburg — is flanked by two annulets, all set within a beaded inner border. The overall design is characteristic of early sixteenth-century German ecclesiastical bracteate coinage, with bold, deeply struck relief typical of the hammered technique. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (1514-1545) |
| Additional information |
Albert of Brandenburg held the archbishopric of Mainz simultaneously with Magdeburg and the bishopric of Halberstadt — an accumulation of ecclesiastical offices that required papal dispensation and generated the infamous indulgence campaign of 1517. Johann Tetzel's preaching of those indulgences across Brandenburg and Saxony directly provoked Luther's Ninety-Five Theses. The bracteate series struck under Albert's long tenure thus spans the exact years in which the Reformation dismantled the very institutional church that authorized his minting rights.