Denier Bracteate - Albert the Bear

Albert I of Ascania received the March of Brandenburg from Emperor Frederick Barbarossa in 1157 after the death of the Wendish prince Pribislav, who had bequeathed the territory to him — a transfer that inaugurated the Hohenzollern predecessor state and triggered decades of conflict with neighboring Slavic peoples. These bracteates were struck in the earliest years of that new political entity, making them among the first coins issued under Brandenburg's name as a distinct march. The fabric is characteristically thin and susceptible to cracking, and surviving examples with full round flans are genuinely uncommon.