The Abbey of Kempten was among the oldest imperial abbeys in the Holy Roman Empire, its abbots holding the rank of Imperial Princes with the right to mint — a privilege confirmed repeatedly from the Carolingian period onward. Henry I served as abbot during a stretch of significant tension between the abbey and the citizens of Kempten, a conflict over jurisdictional authority that would simmer for generations before eventually stripping the abbots of practical urban control entirely.
Bracteates of this fabric, struck on a single thin flan with the design pressed through, were characteristic of Swabian ecclesiastical minting in this period and are notoriously fragile. The surviving population shows considerable flan cracks.
The Abbey of Kempten was among the oldest imperial abbeys in the Holy Roman Empire, its abbots holding the rank of Imperial Princes with the right to mint — a privilege confirmed repeatedly from the Carolingian period onward. Henry I served as abbot during a stretch of significant tension between the abbey and the citizens of Kempten, a conflict over jurisdictional authority that would simmer for generations before eventually stripping the abbots of practical urban control entirely.
Bracteates of this fabric, struck on a single thin flan with the design pressed through, were characteristic of Swabian ecclesiastical minting in this period and are notoriously fragile. The surviving population shows considerable flan cracks.