A tad bit late, but Santa also dropped by here in the Netherlands! And lets just say he has quite the taste. It is hard to capture a true-to-life image of this vibrant toning, so just imagine it twice as pleasing in hand . Lüneburg, Ducal/Welfic coinage. This bracteate came attributed to Wilhelm Longospada (Longsword, 1195 – 1213), but recent scholarship seem to prefer an attribution to his father Heinrich der Löwe (the Lion), 1142 – 1195. While Heinrich initially held the title of Duke of Saxony, his Saxonian domains were confiscated in 1180 after he refused to aid the holy roman emperor Frederick Barbarossa against the Lombard League. They eventually reconciled and Heinrich was allowed to keep his former allodial estates around Lüneburg and Braunschweig. After his death in 1195, these estates were passed on to his three sons, with his youngest son Wilhelm, raised at the court of Richard the Lionheart, acquiring the area around Luneburg after a formal division took place in 1202. Afterwards, he styled himself as ‘duke of Lüneburg’, although the legal status of this claim is up for debate. Where exactly this bracteate fits within this political framework remains to be seen, it is quite possible that the mint just continued to strike this type for an extended period of time. I absolutely fell in love with the toning of this piece as soon as I saw it. I usually don’t care an awful lot about things like that, but since I lacked an example of the bracteate-phenomenon I figured I might as well acquire such a nice one. To be honest, I was quite surprised by the size of this bracteate. I knew that they were thin & flimsy, and at 0.59 gram expected something around 12mm, not nearly double that (23mm)! All in all, I am glad that I... uh... that Santa was able to add this piece of medieval diversity to my collection. Please post related medievals or other beautifully toned pieces below!
That's a lovely bracteate you got for Christmas! The bishop's head on this late medieval bracteate from Basel always reminds me of your Dutch Sinterklaas: Bishop Johann II. Senn von Münsingen, Prince-Bishopric of Basel, Angster ("vierzipfliger Pfennig"), 1335–1365 AD. Obv: head of a bishop wearing mitre (three pellets at each side) left, between B-A, ring above. Rev: negative design (bracteate). 17–20mm, 0.33g. Ref: Wielandt: Basler Münzprägung (1971), no. 117; HMZ 255; Catalogue Wüthrich, no 31; Berger: Brakteaten (1993/6), no. 2415–1416.
Wow, that is the most attractive bracteate I've seen! (not that I've seen many, but still ) The color looks fantastic and the condition is amazing.
That is a gorgeous bracteate @AnYangMan and from a great character of the medieval period. Henry was married to Matilda, daughter of Henry II of England, and cogent his exile at his court. The diameter is a surprise given the weight. I've seen some gorgeous bracteate from time to time and would love to learn more about them. Do you have any other ones you can share?
That OP coin is a beauty. I know incuse reverses are supposed to make coins less fragile, but that coin is so very thin it must be fragile anyway. Be careful with it! (Don't try to bend it to find out for us if it is fragile.)
Wow, that is amazing. I have been looking for a bracteate lately. I want one from the abbey of Quedlinberg.
Oh, how well I understand this! I regularly look at the wonderful Quedlinburg bracteates in the Münzkabinett Berlin online, yet if anything remotely similar came up for sale, it would unfortunately be way out of my financial league. Quedlinburg truly produced some of the most beautiful medieval coins – just look at this bracteate for the abbess Beatrix II (1138-1160): (Also, please don't misunderstand me: it's good that these particular coins are in a museum, and I very much appreciate that many of them are part of the Bode Museum permanent exhibition, where they can be admired by the public.)
Thanks everyone! A bracteate from Quedlinburg has also been on my want-list, but their price tag sadly doesn’t really allow for the purchasing of one any time soon. Let alone one as nice as posted above. Beautiful coins @TypeCoin971793 and @Orielensis, he does indeed look like Sinterklaas, with that traditional mitre! Duly noted @TheRed, a fascinating historical figure indeed! I am afraid however that his is the only ‘real’ bracteate in my collection. I do have something produced in a technically similar manner, but with a whole lot less eye appeal (and a tiny hole). Nevertheless, I find it just as interesting! Sweden, Magnus III Ladulås (Barnlock, which has got to be the most awesome epithet ever). Penning (Brakteat), 1275 – 1290. There has been quite a bit of discussion concerning the place where these were minted. We have Magnus’ testament from 1285, in which eight mints, four in the region of Svealand and four in the region of Götaland, are named. Interestingly enough, Svealand and Götaland used differing weight standards. While 192 pennings were struck from a single mark of silver in Svealand, they struck double that, 384 to be precise, from a mark in Götaland. This results in brakteats with an idealized weight of roughly 0.30 and 0.15 gram respectively. Looking at the numismatic record of Magnus, we can divide his bracteates into 8 different types, based on the nature of the border (solid or pearls), calligraphic variety of the M (Latin or Uncial) and the weight standard on which they were struck; it seems that each type thus represents a single mint! Using distribution maps and the find of a piece of ‘myntningsunderlag’ (not sure if there is a proper English translation, but it refers to the soft piece of pliable metal, often lead, that was put underneath the thin silver planchet to prevent shattering during the striking of bracteates) of a certain Svealandic type in Örebro, the eight different types have been attributed to the eight mints mentioned in Magnus’ testament. This piece, struck on the standard from Götaland, with a solid border and Latin M, is tentatively attributed to Söderköping. No idea why, but coins from this mint especially have a high degree of flan damage. It also currently holds the record for lightest coin in my collection at a mere 0.09 gram! Ps. Sorry for hijacking my own thread!
Oh! Congratulations! That's a sweet one! I came within a gnat's whisker of buying this one recently in an MA-shops store, but when I went back to pull the trigger on it, someone had beaten me to it! So my first bracteate will not happen in 2018 as planned, but I'll likely join the club in early 2019 sometime.
Ha! Nope- didn't happen. I kept missing out on my bracteate-buying and/or -bidding attempts. Eventually, after coming up short at least three times, I bought one at retail... in July of 2020. Ta-dahh! Finally! German States (Brunswick-Lüneburg): silver bracteate of William Longsword, ca. 1195-1213
What a splendid example – welcome to the bracteate club! My lion says hi to yours: City of Braunschweig, AR "Ewiger Pfennig" (bracteate), after 1412 AD. Obv: lion walking l. Rev: negative design (bracteate). 21 mm, 0.45g. Ref: Berger 993–1001.
I'm so happy to be a member of the club now! Do I get a special hat? No- wait- already been there, done that!
