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Bracteat Gold
| Issuer | Guelders, Duchy of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1423-1473 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | The combined heraldic arms of Guelders and Jülich displayed within a plain inner circle, divided by a vertical line into two equal fields: on the left, the rampant lion of Guelders facing right with raised forepaw and curled tail; on the right, the rampant lion of Jülich similarly posed. The design is rendered in bold relief characteristic of medieval hammered bracteate technique, with no legend present. The entire composition is enclosed within a raised rope or cable border forming the outer rim of the flan. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Incuse mirror image of the obverse, as is characteristic of single-die bracteate coinage: the combined Guelders-Jülich quartered arms appear in negative relief, with the two rampant lions sunken into the field. The rope border remains visible in incuse form around the periphery, and the flan edges are irregular due to the hammered striking process. |
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| Additional information |
Bracteates of this weight class from the Lower Rhine duchies were struck as local trade tokens operating in parallel with heavier Rhenish gold — useful precisely because their tiny bullion value made small transactions possible without cutting coin. Guelders issued extensively in this format during the mid-fifteenth century, a period when the duchy was caught between Burgundian expansion and the ambitions of the Egmond dynasty, both of which demanded continuous liquidity for military and diplomatic payments.
The Delmonte gap in the reference number reflects genuine cataloguing uncertainty around these thin-flan pieces, many of which survive in too few examples to anchor firm die sequences.