Featured Flimsy, Thin & Delicate: Medieval Bracteates

There was a modern book written on it which I haven’t read - but I would assume it would have appropriate references to the source material. https://www.spinkbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=141&search=Renovatio

 

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This one is just in: my only bracteate. It's a late-Medieval copper bracteate from the city of Arnhem in the Netherlands, and can be dated at ca. 1461-1570.

Two headed eagle. About 14 mm (not weighed yet). It always surprises me how well these extremely thin coins survive.

 

Beautiful example! I didn't know these were minted so far west. Thanks for making me learn something new.

I'd argue otherwise. Your Augsburg bracteate and the heavily debased Danish hulpenning are fantastic!

 

Hi

 

Hi,
This is Hutchins from Powhatan Va. I dug a breateates up made by a civil war Mason > James Jr. Gallier found here in Va. Look at the website CoinofGlory.com
And give a email if like.
Hutchins

 

@Orielensis, this is the most thorough treatment of these I've ever seen, with examples to match. With any number of terrific, horizon-broadening additions by everyone else. I'm another one who had no idea of the geographic, chronological, or cultural range of these. ...I have one or too more, but for this thread, they're already redundant!

 

New
Hi,
This is Hutchins from Powhatan Va. I dug a breateates up made by a civil war Mason > James Jr. Gallier found here in Va. Look at the website CoinofGlory.com
And give a email if like.
Hutchins

mber: 96898"]Beautiful example! I didn't know these were minted so far west. Thanks for making me learn something new.



I'd argue otherwise. Your Augsburg bracteate and the heavily debased Danish hulpenning are fantastic![/QUOTE]

 

Welcome to CoinTalk @steve 5 - you might find a more enthusiastic response to your find if you post about it in the US coins forum and not the ancient coins forum. (I’d also recommend writing a little about it rather than trying to direct people to your website - you’ll probably get a better discussion)

 

Yea
We got lucky when this made unique bracteate came up. Having a blending image first we saw the 8 star shaped of a tent with a with a litter bearer stretcher
under the tent, then we thought treasury coin of some sort see the 8 stars in shape of the treasury seal, then the coin came together. The old Dr. would have said to the Yankee's if got captured he would described the coin as a badge fooling the Yankee's it was his unique made grey back incuse breateats $20 Rebel Coin pendant.
McGuire brother was there at the last camp got shot at Amelia springs Va.
The they brought him near the James river and his big brother DR. McGuire
came back to him after he surrendered at Appomattox va. to take him home where
his brother Hugh died May 4, 1861. Said ending, Dr. McGuire left his coin there and thats where the stonewall Jacksons second corps broke up April 14, 1865

 

I will, I love to hear there reactions< most will act unknowingly. I,am new here,
how do I get there?
Thank you
Steve5

 

@steve 5, welcome to CoinTalk! At the top of every page of this, the dark blue menu running across the page includes "Forums." Click on that, and a menu will drop down, showing you all the forums on this website. There's "US Coins" and "[Modern] Foreign Coins." Those would fit the bill. Best of luck!

 

@steve 5 , welcome to CoinTalk! You've certainly shown us a fascinating historical artifact and made a great metal detector find. Congratulations on that. Unfortunately, the item you've shown is way out of my field of expertise. I'm collecting Central European medieval coins and also dabble in ancients, but I know next to nothing about US coinage and absolutely nothing about Civil War artifacts. The same will apply to most others here in the ancients forum. My suggestion would be to post your find over in the CoinTalk US forum, where I'm certain you'll find knowlegeable people enthusiastic about this piece.

Thank you very much for the kind words – I very much appreciate them. Also, please show your coins should you have pictures at hand! It's always good to see what other medieval collectors are interested in.

Forgive me if I take the revival of this thread as an oportunity to add some more bracteates to it. First, here is a very early Habsburg dynasty coin from Switzerland – it's unusual to see Saint Maurice on a coin that's not from Mageburg:

Zofingen (Habsburg mint, under the Counts of Frohburg), bracteate penny ("vierzipfliger Pfennig"), ca. 1285–1300 AD. Obv: ZOVI; male frontal bust (St. Maurice?) flanked by two stars, crescent above. Rev: negative design. 18mm . Ref: Berger 2445–6; Slg. Wüthrich 134–5; HMZ I–149a.

Secondly, here is a late medieval Thuringian hohlpfennig. I like the jumping fish. Also note the legend on the edge:

Saalfeld, City, AR hohlpfennig, after 1448 AD. Obv: two jumping fish flanked by S-S; three pellets above; legend on the rim: +SALVELD. Rev: negative design (bracteate). 19mm, 0.36g. Ref: Posern-Klett 758; Slg. Bonhoff 1160.

And, for a change, something from Hungary. The three conjoined faces are an interesting design. Also, Bela IV is the Hungarian king who in 1241 had to face the Mongol invasion of Europe:

Kingdom of Hungary, under Bela IV (or Bela III?), AR bracteate denár, 1235–1270 AD (or 1172–1196 AD?). Obv: BE-LA REX; three bearded heads in a triangle. Obv: negative design (bracteate). 15mm, 0.28g. Ref: Huszár 200.

 

...Well, sure, why not. Here are mine, both of Magdeburg. The first one was posted not long ago, in another thread from @Orielensis. (Except, @Orielensis, here, you took that thread, and Ran with it! ...And you covered some Yardage! I'm contemplating trying to emulate your example in one of my next ones.) It's my only one from the initial, 12th-century German phase, and of anything approaching the original, larger, swoon-inducingly artistic module.
The second is c. late 12th -early 13th century. I got it mainly to represent the reign of Philipp the Swabian (son of Friedrich Barbarossa) as 'King of the Romans,' a candidate for succession to the German Empire before his assassination, ending Staufen rule.
@Orielensis isn't making it up about issues of Magdeburg being the cheapest of the initial German ones.
...But I do have one question, @Orielensis. I have this dim memory of having read (...somewhere) that, at least as of the 12th century, the dies might have been engraved on wood. Does that hold any water, or should it be relegated to the dustbin of historical speculation? ...Have I already missed something you said, in your enlightening (...as in, really; in real time) description of the striking process?

 

Yea
We seen them breateates to, that the way we discovered it was a made middle 1800's. This 1861 Grey Back incuse breateates coin pendant for Dr. Hunter Holmes McGuire, Stonewall Jackson
medical Doctor in the second corps may 4th, 1861. The coin was sent from the mint
April 29, 1861 From the New Orleans mint by way of Adams Express mail.
Think Colonel Jackson at the time pinned it on Dr. McGuire's Jacket.
People have to read all about these guy some what to get the understanding of who they was. We believe this is the only $20 Rebel coin made in New Orleans.
We love the French eagle on the face looking right looking at the coin opposite
of the $20 dollar 1861 U.S Coin. When people view and put this in at the top of there browser > CoinofGlory.com they can read about the new just found coin pendant.

 

Those last ones are brilliant, @Orielensis, eloquently demonstrating how the artistic dimension of these persisted over the next century, on much smaller modules.

 

Orielensis
Yea, thank you for looking at her. We believe this now is the only known one that the Dr. wore and made for the South. Our 17 month research team did a good job and more info is coming in. Go to coinTalk and see if its in there now if you would... I am still try to learn this site.
Thank you very much for looking
Steve5

 

That's a very nice early issue from Magdeburg! I also like your second bracteate (Berger 1534). Fortunately, the Welf takeover after Philip's assassination lasted merely four years...

Concerning the wooden dies, I have not heard of this theory, but that doesn't mean too much. The few extant medieval bracteate obverse dies I know of are all made from iron or other hard metals. The reverse "die" used for many bracteates, though, probably was a sort of wooden pestle padded with leather or some other soft material.

 

Thanks, @Orielensis. Now some of the operant dynastic history is coming back to me. That's Right, Friedrich II represents a Resumption of the Staufen dynasty.
Regarding dies, and striking methods, I have to have every confidence that, if you hadn't heard of the 'wooden die' theory, it probably had a short half-life. ...Never mind that there are extant examples in more traditional media. ...Thanks also for your kind reexplication of striking methods.

 

I love them old made breateates in above images, this 1861 New Orleans Dr. McGuire coin fits the bill perfect.