Denier Bracteate - Hermann I

Hermann I ruled Thuringia at a moment of maximum political opportunism — he backed Heinrich VI, then Otto IV, then Friedrich II in succession, extracting privileges from each. His coinage reflects the prosperity that came with that flexibility. The bracteate fabric, with its extreme diameter-to-weight ratio, was the dominant penny form across central Germany by this period, produced by striking a single thin flan between a die and a leather or lead cushion.

The Seega hoard reference here is significant: that find, recovered in the nineteenth century, contained several hundred Thuringian bracteates and remains a primary source for attributing types to Hermann's long reign.