Frederick II's long conflict with the papacy — including two excommunications — never disrupted his grip on Swabian coinage. Ulm served as an important imperial base, and bracteates from this mint reflect direct imperial authority at a moment when Frederick was simultaneously Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, and King of Jerusalem. The extreme thinness of the flan, struck on a single die, makes these coins extraordinarily fragile in circulation; surviving examples with intact edges are genuinely uncommon.
Frederick II's long conflict with the papacy — including two excommunications — never disrupted his grip on Swabian coinage. Ulm served as an important imperial base, and bracteates from this mint reflect direct imperial authority at a moment when Frederick was simultaneously Holy Roman Emperor, King of Sicily, and King of Jerusalem. The extreme thinness of the flan, struck on a single die, makes these coins extraordinarily fragile in circulation; surviving examples with intact edges are genuinely uncommon.