ABSTRACT:

Forgeries of coins can either be contemporary or modern. Already in the Middle Ages, it was well known that bracteates were considerably more difficult to counterfeit than two-faced coins. The main reason is that bracteates are struck with a more complicated technology originating from goldsmithing. Therefore, most bracteate forgeries have been produced since the eighteenth century. Compared to original bracteates, modern bracteate forgeries often have the following characteristics: 1) an incorrect weight; 2) a lower relief; 3) sharper contours on the reverse; 4) an artistically clumsy design; 5) evidence of being struck with the same die if there are several specimens; and/or 6) empty fields in the background.

Leaf-thin bracteate coins were minted for several hundred years during the Middle Ages. The existence of hundreds of small independent currency areas with their own mints in central, eastern and northern Europe and the strong link between bracteates and periodic recoinage explain the large number of bracteate types. A special minting technology linked to goldsmithing technology was required to produce the bracteates. A soft material was placed under a flan, and the motif was created by bending the flan rather than pressing the motif into the flan. This study analyzes how bracteate technology could save costs in the minting procedure compared to traditional coinage technology. The bending characteristic of the bracteates together with the flat hammering of old bracteates imply that the size of the flan remained almost unchanged after recurrent overstrikes. Thus, the bracteate technology saved one of the costliest steps in the minting procedure: the time-consuming production of the flan. In contrast, overstriking of biface coins using the traditional coin technology could only be performed a few times, since it caused a stepwise thinner and larger flan. The latter phenomenon explains the existence of biface half-bracteates.

This article concerns the discovery of traces on coins that demonstrate the recycling of dies used to strike Bolesław III Wrymouth’s bracteates. They are the oldest Polish coins made using this technique. These allow us to establish the relative chronology of coins of both types and to provide evidence of a common mint origin, contributing to the wider discussion over the nature of the issue of bracteates. Thanks to this, it can be shown that as long as a coin with traces of an older design remains unique, it is equally possible to interpret it as either an overstrike or a secondary use of a die with newly engraved content.

In the Middle Ages, tens of thousands types of uni-faced bracteate coins were struck in the period 1140−1520. The existence of hundreds of small independent currency areas with their own mints in central, eastern, and northern Europe and the strong link between bracteates and periodic re-coinage explain the large number of bracteate types. The classification and dating of coins can provide insight into economic and monetary development when studying coin hoards and cumulative finds. A central problem when classifying bracteates is that most of them are anonymous, i.e., there are seldom any legends or letters. However, bracteates struck in closely located mints almost always have the same regional monetary standard. In this study, I show how monetary standards in combination with social attributes can be used to classify bracteates when both legends and find information are lacking. I also provide an economic explanation why closely related mints voluntary joined a specific monetary standard.

During archaeological excavation conducted in 2017 between the streets of St. Katarzyna, St. Wit, Wit Stwosz and Nowy Targ Square in Wrocław 46 numismatic objects were discovered – 37 coins, 4 jetons, 4 objects related to numismatics (silver planchet, a small piece of cast silver and two containers for bracteates – one lid and one bottom, from various containers) and one lead token. Early medieval, late medieval and early modern coins appeared. The most interesting are the thirteenth-century Silesian bracteates of the Ratajski and Kałowice types. During excavation a rare Prague parvus of Wenceslas II was also found. Among all the coins, one of the most interesting is counterfeited West Pomeranian denier of Bogusław I, Duke of Pomerania. All analyzed coins constitute a cumulative find that was found in one of Wrocław’s auxiliary markets of medieval origin.