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Denier - Otto II Strasbourg mint
| Issuer | Holy Roman Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 973-983 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Central field features a bold equal-armed cross with expanded terminals, enclosed within a beaded inner circle. The surrounding annular border is filled with the Latin legend reading + OTTO MAGNA, rendered in irregular hammered characters. The field between the inner beaded circle and the outer toothed rim displays additional decorative elements typical of Ottonian coinage. The overall style is characteristic of late 10th-century German episcopal and royal deniers, with a strongly schematic, flat-relief treatment of the cross motif. |
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| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Otto II inherited the imperial title in 973 upon the death of his father Otto I, and Strasbourg — then Straßburg, a key Rhenish episcopal seat — was among the mints authorized to strike in his name. The bishop's mint there operated under royal grant, a arrangement that would define German ecclesiastical coinage for the next two centuries. Otto II spent much of his reign fighting on two fronts: suppressing internal rebellions by Bavarian and Lotharingian nobility, then losing catastrophically to a Fatimid-allied Arab force at the Battle of Capo Colonna in 982, from which he never politically recovered.