Catalog
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Cologne |
|---|---|
| Year | 1076-1079 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.54 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | + HILTOLFVS ARCHEPS |
| Reverse description | Frontal view of a stylized two-towered church facade, representing Cologne Cathedral, depicted with a central pointed arch and a cross rising above the roofline, all set within a decorative ring formed by the city wall. The architectural rendering is characteristic of Ottonian-Salian ecclesiastical coinage, with the towers flanking the central gabled nave. The surrounding Latin legend reads +SANCTA COLONIA, identifying the holy city of Cologne, enclosed within a beaded border. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Hildolf served as Archbishop of Cologne during one of the most turbulent episodes in medieval German history — the Investiture Controversy that pitted Pope Gregory VII directly against Henry IV. These deniers were struck in the years immediately surrounding Henry's excommunication in 1076 and his famous submission at Canossa in January 1077, when the Archbishop's political allegiances were under acute pressure from both imperial and papal camps.
Cologne's archbishops held minting rights as part of their broader regalian privileges, and coinage struck under Hildolf sits in a transitional moment when those rights were increasingly contested by reformist ecclesiastical politics.