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Denier Bracteate - Otto
| Issuer | Hessen, Landgraviate of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1308-1326 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Single-sided bracteate struck in thin silver sheet, depicting a lion passant to the left in high relief, with a stylized mane rendered as a foliate crown or tree-like cluster above the head. The lion is set within a beaded inner circle, itself surrounded by a continuous outer border of raised pellets arranged at regular intervals around the periphery of the flan. The overall design is characteristic of Hessian bracteate coinage of the early fourteenth century, combining heraldic boldness with the shallow, mirror-image technique inherent to the bracteate format. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | As a bracteate, this coin has no independent reverse design; the reverse face displays only the incuse, mirror-image impression of the obverse lion motif, as is typical of the single-die hammered bracteate technique. The thin silver flan shows the characteristic concave curvature and flan irregularities associated with medieval German bracteate production. |
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| Additional information |
Otto I of Hesse ruled during a period of persistent territorial friction with the Archbishop of Mainz, and the output of his mint reflects both the ambition and the constraints of a landgraviate still consolidating its administrative reach. Bracteates of this type circulated primarily within regional ecclesiastical and market networks rather than across broader trade routes — their extreme thinness made them unsuitable for long-distance exchange and they were frequently demonetized and reminted within a generation.
The "var." designation against Schütz II#63 indicates a die variation not fully catalogued in the standard reference, a not uncommon situation with Hessian bracteates given the relatively modest attention paid to this series compared to Thuringian or Saxon equivalents.