Denier - Boleslaus I the Cruel

Boleslaus I earned his epithet by murdering his brother Wenceslas in 935 — the same Wenceslas later canonized and celebrated in the Christmas carol — and then ruled for nearly four decades in open defiance of Ottonian suzerainty before eventually submitting to Otto I around 950. These deniers represent the earliest phase of Bohemian coinage, issued by a duke who understood that striking silver in his own name was an assertion of political autonomy as much as an economic convenience. Cach 11 is among the foundational references for this series.