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Denier Bracteate - Kuno I
| Issuer | County of Münzenberg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1151-1207 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered (bracteate) |
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| Obverse description | Full-facing effigy of Count Kuno I enthroned, rendered in the Romanesque style characteristic of 12th-century German bracteates. The count is depicted seated frontally upon a throne, holding a flowering or foliate branch (mint branch) in his right hand and a lily scepter in his left, symbols of lordly authority. The figure is framed by two large foliate branches rising on either side, enclosing the design within an organic, tree-like border. A beaded inner circle surrounds the composition, typical of bracteate coinage of the period. The entire design is struck in high relief on a thin flan, as is characteristic of the bracteate technique. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Kuno I of Münzenberg served as imperial chamberlain under Frederick Barbarossa, a position that granted him the minting rights this bracteate reflects. The County of Münzenberg was a minor but strategically positioned lordship in the Wetterau, and its coinage circulated within a region contested by the Hohenstaufen and local ecclesiastical powers throughout the second half of the twelfth century. Bracteates of this type were struck on exceptionally thin flans, making intact surviving examples genuinely uncommon — the fragility of the fabric accounts for most of the attrition.