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Denier - Otto III and Adelaide Gandersheim abbey
| Issuer | Gandersheim Abbey |
|---|---|
| Year | 983-995 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Technique | Hammered |
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| Obverse description | Central field features a plain cross within a beaded inner circle, with a pellet or small ornament placed in each of the four angles formed by the cross arms. The surrounding legend is distributed around the inner circle, reading OTTO and D-I GRA REX, invoking the royal authority of Otto by divine grace. Letters are rendered in the angular, somewhat irregular style characteristic of Ottonian hammered coinage. The overall design is typical of late tenth-century Imperial deniers, emphasizing royal titulature over portraiture. |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | OTTO +D-I GRA+ REX (Translation: Otto, king by God`s grace.) |
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| Additional information |
Gandersheim was no ordinary ecclesiastical mint. The abbey, founded by the Liudolfing dynasty — the direct predecessors of the Ottonian imperial line — held minting rights as a deliberate expression of dynastic piety and political consolidation. Coins struck here under Otto III name both the emperor and his grandmother Adelaide, who served as regent following his father Otto II's death in 983. That dual authority on a single piece reflects the regency arrangement precisely: a child emperor, a powerful dowager, and an abbey whose abbesses were drawn almost exclusively from the highest Saxon nobility.