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1 Groschen - Alexander II Cetatea Alba - Type I
| Issuer | Cetatea Albă, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1449-1455 |
| Type | Local coin |
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| Obverse description | Central plain square cross in relief occupying the field, with arms of equal length. A Cyrillic legend encircles the cross along the coin's periphery, reading the name of the issuing city. The flan is irregular and slightly uneven, consistent with medieval hammered coinage. The lettering is bold and somewhat roughly executed, typical of provincial Moldavian mint work of the mid-fifteenth century. |
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| Obverse lettering | АСПРКАСТРꙊ (Translation: Cetatea Alba.) |
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| Additional information |
Cetatea Albă — known in antiquity as Akkerman and earlier as Miletus' colony Tyras — occupied a strategic position on the Dniester estuary that made it perpetually contested. Under Alexander II's tenure the city operated with enough autonomy to strike its own municipal coinage, a privilege rooted in Moldavian political arrangements that allowed major commercial centers to issue low-denomination currency for local trade. The brass composition places this firmly in the utility tier of the monetary system, not the prestige tier.
Type I designation in MBR#573 implies at least one subsequent die variant exists within the series.