Denier Bracteate - Beatrice I Gelnhausen

Beatrice I was Frederick Barbarossa's first empress, and Gelnhausen — the imperial palace town he founded in 1170 — was closely associated with her authority in the region. Bracteates of this type were struck at the Gelnhausen mint during that founding decade, making this among the earliest coinage attributable to the town itself. The single-sided fabric was standard practice for the Rhine-Main region at this period, where thin silver was hammered against a single die and backed with lead or leather to prevent collapse.

Häv#3 is among the rarer Gelnhausen attributions in Hävernick's bracteate corpus.