10 Zlotys Brakteat of Leszek I the White

The brakteat — a thin, single-die coin struck so that the design appears in relief on one side and intaglio on the other — was the dominant coinage technology in medieval Poland from roughly the mid-12th through the 14th century. Leszek I the White, Duke of Kraków and a central figure in the fractious Piast dynastic struggles, ruled intermittently until his assassination in 1227 at Gąsawa, an ambush arranged during what was supposed to be a political summit.

This 2014 issue belongs to the NBP's long-running series commemorating Polish medieval rulers, each struck to replicate the brakteat format of the original period coinage.