Obol Bracteate - Henry of Aurich

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.