Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Groat 'Botdrager' - John of Bavaria
| Issuer | Prince-Bishopric of Liège |
|---|---|
| Year | 1396-1418 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Groat |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Within a plain inner circle, a lion sejant facing left, draped in a cape decorated with the quartered arms of Bavaria-Palatinate, rendered in the bold, somewhat schematic style characteristic of late medieval Liégeois coinage. The heraldic lion occupies the full field, its crowned head turned to the viewer's left and its forelegs raised. A circular legend in uncial Gothic characters runs between the inner circle and the outer beaded border, separated by pellets. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | A long cross pattée extending to the beaded border divides the field into four quarters, each bearing the arms of Bavaria-Palatinate; the arms consist of alternating lozengy and pale-striped quarters referencing the Wittelsbach dynastic claims of John of Bavaria. The cross limbs intersect the circular legend, a common compositional device on medieval gros-type coins. The legend in uncial Gothic lettering runs continuously around the coin between the inner circle and the outer beaded border, punctuated by pellets. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
John of Bavaria never actually became bishop through ecclesiastical merit — he was elected Prince-Bishop of Liège in 1389 at around age fourteen, a purely dynastic appointment engineered by his father, Duke Albert I of Bavaria. The Liégeois chafed under his secular, autocratic rule, and his tenure was marked by repeated armed conflicts with the city's guilds and communes, culminating in the Battle of Othée in 1408, where John crushed the rebel burghers with Burgundian assistance at considerable cost in local lives.
The "Botdrager" type takes its popular name from the Flemish term for a messenger or courier — regional coinage nicknames of this period often referenced the coin's practical role in daily commerce rather than its issuing authority.