Dünnpfennig - Theodorich

Theodorich (or Dietrich I) of Basel held the bishopric during a period when the right to strike coin in the upper Rhine region was fiercely contested between episcopal and imperial authority. These thin bracteate-style pfennigs — the name literally means "thin penny" — were produced at a moment when Basel's mint was asserting itself as a serious regional monetary presence under Salian imperial patronage. The fabric is notoriously fragile, and surviving examples free of cracks or edge losses are genuinely uncommon.