Denier Bracteate - Anonymous

The Bishopric of Minden occupied a strategically awkward position in the 13th century, squeezed between the ambitions of the Duchy of Brunswick-Lüneburg and the expanding influence of the Archbishopric of Cologne. Anonymous episcopal bracteates from this period reflect a deliberate minting policy — by omitting the bishop's name, the issue could remain in circulation across multiple reigns without recall, reducing recoinage costs and maintaining public confidence in the currency. Stange 40 is among the thinner of the Minden bracteate types, struck on a flan so delicate that undistorted examples are genuinely difficult to locate.