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Obol Bracteate - Henry of Aurich
| Issuer | Abbey of Lorsch |
|---|---|
| Year | 1153-1167 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.63 g |
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| Obverse description | Facing bust of an ecclesiastical figure, likely the abbot, depicted frontally in a stylized Romanesque manner, wearing a crown surmounted by a cross. The figure holds a crozier in the left hand and raises the right hand in a gesture of benediction. The bust is rendered with schematic drapery and decorative pellet details on the vestments. The design is enclosed within a beaded inner circle, itself surrounded by a broad outer beaded border typical of bracteate coinage of the period. The overall composition is characteristic of mid-12th-century German ecclesiastical bracteates. |
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| Mint | Lorsch Mint |
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| Additional information |
The Abbey of Lorsch had been one of the great Carolingian imperial monasteries, but by the mid-twelfth century it was locked in a prolonged struggle with the Archbishop of Mainz over control of its assets and secular governance. Henry of Aurich served as abbot during precisely this contested period, and the minting of bracteates like this one was as much a political assertion of abbatial rights as it was a practical monetary act. Thin-flan bracteate coinage was the dominant form in this part of the Rhineland by the 1150s, replacing the older two-sided penny tradition almost entirely.