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Denier Bracteate - Philip Christopher of Sötern
| Issuer | Bishopric of Speyer |
|---|---|
| Year | 1624-1626 |
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| Currency | Thaler |
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| Obverse description | Bipartite shield divided horizontally by the cross of Speyer, the upper half bearing the episcopal arms and the lower half featuring a lion passant; the date numerals flank the shield in the field, with '2' to the left and '4' to the right, representing the last two digits of the year. The entire device is set within a beaded border. The coin is struck in the bracteate tradition, producing a uniface relief characteristic of small German ecclesiastical pfennigs of the early seventeenth century. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | 2 4 |
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| Additional information |
Philip Christopher von Sötern was Bishop of Speyer from 1610 before also becoming Elector-Archbishop of Trier in 1623 — making him one of the most politically consequential ecclesiastical figures of the Thirty Years' War period. These bracteates were struck at the very moment imperial authority in the Rhineland was fracturing, with Spanish and Swedish forces both treating the region as a corridor. Philip Christopher's later imprisonment by Emperor Ferdinand II in 1635, held for nine years on charges of collaborating with France, underscores just how volatile his tenure was. The bracteate fabric itself — single-sided, wafer-thin — reflects a minting tradition already archaic by the 1620s.