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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Chris B, post: 4568507, member: 87179&quot;][ATTACH=full]1131286[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">Saxony (Duchy)</p> <p style="text-align: center">Henry the Lion. 1139 / 42-1195. AR Bracteate</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Diameter: 30mm</p> <p style="text-align: center">Weight: 0.80 g</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Braunshweig mint</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Obverse: Lion passant left, head facing; annulet above</p> <p style="text-align: center">Reverse: Incuse of obverse</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Kestner 612-8; Bonhoff 272</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>From Wikipedia: A bracteate (from the Latin bractea, a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vendel era in Sweden). The term is also used for thin discs, especially in gold, to be sewn onto clothing in the ancient world, as found for example in the ancient Persian Oxus treasure, and also later silver coins produced in central Europe during the Early Middle Ages.</p><p><br /></p><p>I was kind of surprised to see that there wasn’t a single thread on CT dedicated to bracteates. At least none that mention them in the title. There are only a handful of times that they are mentioned at all.&nbsp; While they are not a main objective of my collecting experience, I have been aware of them for some time, although I had never purchased one until recently.</p><p><br /></p><p>My recent acquisitions started with the piece below. It is from Augsburg and was listed as part of lot of 7 coins I purchased in a recent auction. I was interested in a couple of the other pieces and barely paid attention to this little piece. When it came in the mail it was the piece that I found most impressive. It is much clearer than my image shows. </p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1131284[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">Augsburg</p> <p style="text-align: center">1288-1302</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Wolfhard von Roth-Wackernitz. Bracteate.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Obverse: Bust of the bishop from the front with mitra bicornis, crook and book in beaded stripes and 8 sheets</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">St. 94. Kestner- 2656</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>So, of course, that started me looking for others. To me, pictures don’t convey the “cool” factor of these. When I look for them online I just kind of get a meh reaction from myself. So, in the month or so since the first purchase, nothing really jumped out at me to purchase.</p><p><br /></p><p>My key collecting area is German States coinage from the 1400’s to 1871. Branching out to some earlier coins makes sense to me. The coin pictured at the beginning of this thread was purchased today at a local coin show. It is huge for a bracteate. It came with an old CNG tag and with a little sleuthing I saw that I paid less than half what it sold for there. I can deal with that.&nbsp; The 2 below were purchased from the same dealer. I think he was just impressed that someone knew what a bracteate was.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1131285[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">Augsburg</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Diocese of Hartmann Graf von Dillingen 1250-1286 </p> <p style="text-align: center">Bracteate</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Obverse: head of the bishop from the front, one ring Bonh on each side.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">1918. Berger 2651</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1131287[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center">Tiengen. Barons of Krenkingen. </p> <p style="text-align: center">about 1350-1400.</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Weight: 0.35 g</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Obverse: T-E / V, draped bust left, wearing pointed helmet </p> <p style="text-align: center">Reverse: Incuse of the obverse</p> <p style="text-align: center"><br /></p> <p style="text-align: center">Berger 2468; Bonhoff 1793; Wüthrich 167</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Prices for these are all over the place. The 4 pieces I have shown above ranged in price from $30 to $180 but they can go up into 4 figures.</p><p><br /></p><p>So, show your bracteates if you have them. I know their other collectors here on CT.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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