Denier Bracteate - Botho II

Botho II of Stolberg ruled a minor Harz-region county whose minting rights were perpetually contested by neighboring lords and ecclesiastical authorities. Bracteate production in this region had largely been superseded by thicker bilateral coinage elsewhere in German-speaking lands by the fifteenth century, making Stolberg one of the more conservative minting operations of its time. The type's attribution to Friederich #49 places it within a closely studied sequence of Harz bracteates distinguished by subtle die differences rather than dramatic stylistic breaks.