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Denier Bracteate 'Moritzpfennig' - Wichmann of Seeburg
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Magdeburg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1152-1170 |
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| Value | 1 Denier |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Frontal effigy of Saint Maurice, patron saint of Magdeburg, depicted as a warrior figure with a nimbus or beaded halo, wearing a helmet and holding a sword in his left hand and a shield or banner in his right. The saint is shown in Romanesque stylized relief, rendered in the flat, single-sided bracteate technique characteristic of 12th-century Saxon coinage. A cross pattée appears to the right of the figure, and a partial Latin legend in archaic letterforms runs along the outer beaded border of the flan. The overall composition is enclosed within a beaded inner circle, the irregular flan edges showing the characteristic folded and cracked margins typical of thin hammered bracteate production. |
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| Mintage | ND (1152-1170) |
| Additional information |
Wichmann of Seeburg served as Archbishop of Magdeburg from 1152 to 1192, and his tenure coincided with the aggressive eastward expansion of German settlement across the Elbe — a political and economic surge that made Magdeburg one of the most consequential minting authorities in the empire. The bracteate format, then dominant across northern and central Germany, allowed thin silver flans to be struck from a single die, producing the characteristic mirror-image ghost impression on the reverse.
The "Moritzpfennig" designation references St. Maurice, patron of the Magdeburg archdiocese, whose cult was central to the see's identity since Otto I deposited relics there in the tenth century.