Denier Bracteate - Henry I

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.