Denier Bracteate - Wilbrand of Käfernburg

Wilbrand of Käfernburg held the archbishopric through one of the more turbulent stretches of mid-13th century German ecclesiastical politics, navigating competing loyalties during the prolonged conflict between imperial and papal factions that fractured the Holy Roman Empire following Frederick II's excommunication. Magdeburg's position on the Elbe made it both commercially vital and politically exposed, and the archbishops exercised broad minting rights that produced a remarkable variety of bracteate types across short episcopal tenures.

The large thin flan of Magdeburg bracteates from this period is notoriously prone to edge cracking — a structural consequence of the single-die striking method rather than any flaw in the silver itself.