Catalog
Denier - Conrad Utrecht, facing bust
| Issuer | Bishopric of Utrecht |
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| Year | 1076-1099 |
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| Composition | Silver |
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| Obverse description | Frontal effigy of Bishop Conrad rendered in Romanesque style, depicted in high relief within a beaded inner circle. The bishop is shown facing, wearing a mitre or crown-like headdress, and holding a crozier in one hand and a cross-tipped staff in the other. The crude, archaic workmanship is characteristic of 11th-century episcopal coinage of the Lower Rhine region. The circumscribed Latin legend runs along the outer border of the flan. |
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| Obverse lettering | ✠ CONRADVS EI (Translation: Bishop Conrad) |
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| Additional information |
Conrad of Zweibrücken-Hornbach was appointed Bishop of Utrecht in 1076 by Henry IV, making him a creature of imperial patronage at the precise moment the Investiture Controversy was tearing apart the relationship between the German crown and Rome. Utrecht's mint was among the most productive episcopal mints in the Low Countries, with the bishopric's coinage rights firmly grounded in privileges granted by earlier Ottonian rulers.
The facing bust type is a deliberate archaism, drawing on Carolingian and Ottonian numismatic tradition to project episcopal authority during a period when that authority was genuinely contested.