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Light Denier - Hartwig of Sponheim
| Issuer | Archbishopric of Magdeburg |
|---|---|
| Year | 1079-1102 |
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| Value | 1 Light Denier (1/2) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Frontal bust of the archbishop in high relief, rendered in the Ottonian-Romanesque stylistic tradition typical of late 11th-century German ecclesiastical coinage. The figure is depicted facing, wearing liturgical vestments and holding a crozier or staff to the left. The facial features and drapery are rendered in a schematic, abstracted manner characteristic of hammered bracteate-influenced deniers of the period. The field surrounding the figure is plain and irregular due to the hammered flan. No legible legend is present on this side. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Architectural motif depicting a stylized facade of Magdeburg Cathedral or a city gate, rendered in a schematic Romanesque manner. The structure features a central tower or portal flanked by turrets, with decorative pellets and globular ornaments distributed throughout the field, a hallmark of Magdeburg episcopal coinage of the late 11th and early 12th centuries. The design is boldly struck in high relief on an irregularly shaped hammered flan. The composition conveys the ecclesiastical and civic authority of the Archbishopric of Magdeburg. No legible legend is discernible. |
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| Additional information |
Hartwig of Sponheim governed Magdeburg during a period of acute imperial-papal tension — his archbishopric sat directly in the fault line of the Investiture Controversy, with Gregory VII and Henry IV contesting the right to appoint exactly such figures as him. Hartwig himself was an imperially-backed appointment, which placed Magdeburg's ecclesiastical coinage in an awkward political position throughout his tenure.
Light deniers of this type were struck to a reduced weight standard that reflected broader monetary pressures across the Saxon mints in the late eleventh century.