Denier Bracteate - Conrad of Wettin

Conrad of Wettin acquired the Margravate of Meissen in 1127 after a prolonged succession dispute following the death of Henry the Strong, and his coinage reflects the administrative consolidation of a frontier march still heavily contested between German imperial interests and Slavic political pressure. Bracteates — struck on a single thin flan from one die — dominated Saxon and Thuringian minting from the twelfth century onward precisely because their fragility discouraged hoarding and enforced local circulation, a feature that suited marcher lords managing closed regional economies.