Catalog
Denier - Béla II
| Issuer | Hungary |
|---|---|
| Year | 1131-1141 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.36 g |
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| Reverse description | A plain cross with straight arms occupies the central field, enclosed within a beaded inner circle, with four wedge-shaped ornaments filling each quadrant between the cross arms. The annular field between the inner beaded circle and the outer pearl border is decorated with evenly spaced radial lines, a recurring motif on Hungarian deniers of the early Árpád period. The design is struck in the characteristically irregular hammered style of medieval Hungarian coinage, with a flat, unmodeled relief typical of the reign of Béla II. |
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| Mintage | ND (1131-1141) - H#102 - ND (1131-1141) - H#102a - obv.: wedges in inner circles, not dots - ND (1131-1141) - H#103 - copper strike version - ND (1131-1141) - H#103 - mule strike rev.: empty space around cross in inner circle - ND (1131-1141) - H#104 - rev.: instead of cross, two vertical wedges facing up&down, two others pointing down on side - ND (1131-1141) - H#105 - square klippe - ND (1131-1141) - H#105 - square klippe - copper strike version - |
| Additional information |
Béla II came to power blinded — literally. As a child, he and his father Álmos were captured by King Kálmán, who had both of them blinded and Béla's father castrated to eliminate them as dynastic rivals. That Béla later ruled at all was a minor political miracle, and his reign was shaped by the trauma of its origins: his queen, Helena of Raška, effectively governed alongside him, and it was she who presided over the 1132 diet at Arad where scores of nobles implicated in the blinding were executed.
The multiple Huszár references reflect genuine die variation across the decade-long reign rather than distinct issue types.