Denier Bracteate - Burkhardt of Woldenberg

Burkhardt of Woldenberg served as Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1232 to 1235, a tenure cut short by his death after just three years. Magdeburg's mint was among the most prolific producers of bracteates in the eastern German lands during the thirteenth century, a direct consequence of the archbishopric's commercial dominance along the Elbe trade corridor. These thin single-sided pieces were the standard exchange medium of the region precisely because they were cheap to produce and easy to counterfeit — periodic recall and reissuance was built into the monetary system by design, generating seigniorage revenue for the issuing authority.