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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;+VGO.DVCKS, post: 8354253, member: 110504&quot;]Apologies are due, to whoever has any use for them, for how long it took me to get to this.&nbsp; My now antiquated desktop (first one I ever bought new) had one of its regularly scheduled, sustained electro-neural episodes.</p><p>But just before that started happening, I got this.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1482594[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1482595[/ATTACH]</p><p>Rainald von Dassel, Archbishop of Koln 1159-1197.&nbsp; AR obole /obol (half denar).</p><p>I&#039;ve yet to even look for this in my .pdf of Dannenberg, but my trust in the dealer is otherwise, justly implicit.&nbsp; On the obverse, Yep, you&#039;ve got Rainald, facing, holding a crozier and a Gospel book.</p><p>Rainald was prominent in the administration of Friederich I Barbarossa, notably as an envoy during Friedrich&#039;s diplomatic and military campaigns in the city-states of northern Italy.&nbsp; ...Which, at the time, were an increasingly nominal part of the German empire. From one of his Italian missions, Rainald brought the relics of the Three Magi back to Koln. Scored him some points with Friedrich.&nbsp; Here&#039;s a pic of Rainald, from the near-contemporary, correspondingly elaborate gold reliquary in the cathedral at Koln.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1482624[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p>The obol is a terrific complement to a denar of Friedrich himself, from Aachen.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1482625[/ATTACH][ATTACH=full]1482626[/ATTACH]</p><p>AR denar of Aachen, issued c. 1171-1190.</p><p>Obv.&nbsp; Friedrich crowned, enthroned, holding sword and orb, star in right field.</p><p>FREDERI&nbsp; [...]&nbsp; IM-P-R&nbsp; (‘FREDERI [CVS]&nbsp; IMP [E] R [ATOR].</p><p>Rev.&nbsp; Stylized skyline of Aachen, with crenellated stone wall and gate in the ‘foreground,’ roofs and spire (/dome) above.</p><p>+ROMA CAPVT MVNDI&nbsp; (‘Rome, Capital of the World’).&nbsp; (The spire may represent the central dome of Charlemagne’s original chapel, emulating the dome of Justinian in the Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.&nbsp; And, like it, still extant, as part of the much larger cathedral complex in modern Aachen.)</p><p>Bonhoff 1605 (plate coin); Krummbach 27.2, Menadier 27.</p><p>Since Aachen /Aix was Charlemagne&#039;s capital, the reverse legend symptomizes not only broader 12th-century perceptions of the Carolingian empire as a legitimate successor to the (western) Roman one, but also, given all that, how keen Friedrich was to appropriate Charlemagne&#039;s dynastic legacy.</p><p>By a fun twist of numisatic irony, the motifs of Friedrich&#039;s issue of Aachen are imitated by the succeeding bishop of Koln.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1482634[/ATTACH]</p><p>CT: L: Philipp von Heinsberg, Archbishop of Koln 1167-1191.</p><p>AR denar of Koln, 4th type, c. 1181-1190 (variant).</p><p>Obv. Philipp facing, enthroned, mitred, holding crozier in right hand, pennon surmounted by a cross in left.</p><p>[From 1 o&#039;clock:] HIT ARC [...] EPISCOP [...] V</p><p>Rev. Stylized skyline of Koln Cathedral, the central tower surmounted by a cross, extending into the legend; Romanesque (or Carolingian?) arcading below.</p><p>+EIA COLONIA PAIC IIAI</p><p>Bonhoff 1582, Havernick 549 (variant).&nbsp; For reverse legend, see</p><p><a href="http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=1110844&amp;AucID=1023&amp;Lot=1897&amp;Val=8a21ade593f13678a803c97a9a159f84" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=1110844&amp;AucID=1023&amp;Lot=1897&amp;Val=8a21ade593f13678a803c97a9a159f84" rel="nofollow">http://www.coinarchives.com/w/lotviewer.php?LotID=1110844&amp;AucID=1023&amp;Lot=1897&amp;Val=8a21ade593f13678a803c97a9a159f84</a>.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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