coin hoard discovered in an unknown locality east of Saint Petersburg in Russia in 2019 ( tpq 1008/9), contained three Polish coins issued by Bolesław I the Brave of hitherto unknown types (Mikhel’son 2023). One of them bears the inscription: +POZZNANI, the oldest record of Poznań’s name, the then-capital center (Fig. 1). The reverse of this coin, like the two others, was struck from a die that contains the inscription: AЯЄAHLAT (Figs 1–3). This die was already known from the first die-chain of Bolesław the Brave’s coinage. This makes it possible to include the newly discovered coins in the die-chain. As a consequence, die-chain no. 1 can be expanded, its chronology can be made more precise (ca. 998–1010), and can help establish that the linked die-chains were used in the Poznań mint.

The starting point for this text was the publication of a coin, assigned to Bolesław I the Brave (992–1025), Prince of Poland, with the name BOLEZLAV and a two-side representation of a chapel (Grossmanová, Matejko-Peterka, Kašparová 2018; Fig. 4). It is currently stored in the Moravian Museum in Brno. This coin has been known in the literature since the mid-19th century (Cappe 1850). Former researchers assigned it either to Boleslav III in the Bohemia (Cappe 1850; Hanka 1856) or to Bolesław I the Brave in Poland (Stronczyński 1884; Fiala 1895; Gumowski 1939). Newer researchers ignored it completely, suspecting that it was some kind of imitation or contemporary falsification. However, its authenticity is supported by the fact that it was originally in the collection of H. Dannenberg. Finally, the matter was decided by the publication in the auction catalogue (Warszawskie Centrum Numizmatyczne, Auction no. 67, item 132) of a coin minted on one side with the same die as the coin from Brno (Fig. 5). This allows us to postulate the existence of a new fourth die-chain in the coinage of Bolesław I the Brave (Fig. 6).

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.