Denier Bracteate - Jakob III of Eltz

Jakob III von Eltz served as Archbishop of Trier from 1567 to 1581, a tenure defined largely by the pressures of the Counter-Reformation and the financial strains of maintaining ecclesiastical authority along the middle Rhine. Bracteates of this type — thin single-sided silver pieces — survived in the Trier region well past their widespread abandonment elsewhere in the Holy Roman Empire, a conservative minting practice rooted in the archbishopric's commercial isolation from broader imperial monetary reforms. MB#73 is among the scarcer attributable issues of his episcopate.