Denier Bracteate - Albert the Bear

Albert I, known as Albert the Bear, consolidated Brandenburg as a hereditary margraviate in 1157 after expelling Pribislav-Henry's rival claimants and receiving the territory as imperial fief from Frederick Barbarossa — the political moment that effectively founded what would become Prussia. These thin bracteate pfennigs were the working currency of that consolidation, struck during the period Albert was actively building administrative infrastructure in a newly Germanized territory carved from Slavic lands.

Bracteates of this type are notoriously fragile; the single-die hammering process left them prone to cracking along the edges, and surviving examples without splits are genuinely uncommon.