Our aim is to show that numismatics can provide important information about early history of a settlement in the face of a shortage of other types of evidence. We will study the case of Gdańsk. There is a record on the existence of the town (urbs) of Gdańsk from 997, but no sufficiently considerable archaeological traces of this town were found. Therefore, we do not know where the oldest Gdańsk was located. Most likely, the settlement relics from that time were destroyed as a result of fortification works at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, the destruction of stratigraphic structures does not mean the destruction of certainly dated historical artefacts, and above all, coins. Registration of early medieval coin finds from the area of Gdańsk provides knowledge of the extent of settlement and functional changes of individual parts of the town complex.

Recent archaeological discoveries have allowed us to examine a series of bracteates from East Pomerania from the late twelfth and the thirteenth century, which has enabled us to construct a new view of medieval coinage in this province. A pivotal role may be attributed to the coins inscribed with the name of Sambor I, the fi rst historical master of Gdańsk, and with the monogrammed name of Otto, which is supposed to refer to St Otto of Bamberg.