Denier Bracteate - Frederick II Ravensburg mint

Frederick II spent much of the 1230s and early 1240s locked in escalating conflict with Pope Gregory IX, who excommunicated him twice — once in 1227 and again in 1239. The Ravensburg mint operated under imperial control in Swabia, a region Frederick worked hard to consolidate as a personal power base against both papal pressure and rebellious German princes. Bracteate production at minor imperial mints during this period was erratic, and surviving examples from Ravensburg are considerably scarcer than those from the larger Swabian centers.