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Denier Bracteate - John Philip of Schönborn
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Mainz |
|---|---|
| Year | 1647-1673 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Bifold quartered shield bearing the arms of Mainz (the Catherine wheel) on the dexter side and the Schönborn family arms (three points) on the sinister side, divided by a vertical line with a horizontal bar forming a cross-like partition. The initials MF appear between two dots above the shield, serving as a mint or die-cutter mark. The entire device is enclosed within a beaded circle, with additional pellets visible in the field around the border, characteristic of the bracteate hammered coinage tradition of the mid-seventeenth century Rhineland. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Latin |
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| Additional information |
John Philip von Schönborn became Archbishop of Mainz in 1647, the same year the Peace of Westphalia was being negotiated — he was himself one of the driving diplomatic figures behind those talks. His tenure coincided with the painstaking rebuilding of Rhenish economic life after the Thirty Years' War had gutted coin circulation across the region. Bracteates of this extreme lightness were a practical concession to silver scarcity, struck on foil-thin flans from a single die.
At 0.16 g, these pieces wore and fragmented easily, which explains surviving attrition rates.