Catalog
Denier Bracteate
| Issuer | Hamburg, Free Hanseatic city of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1350-1360 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 0.28 g |
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| Obverse description | Within a beaded inner circle surrounded by a radiating lozenge or reed border, the Hamburg city gate is depicted in stylized form: a central archway surmounted by a trident-like turret structure with vertical striations representing battlements, flanked by a small pellet on each side in the field. The design is rendered in the flat, single-sided relief characteristic of bracteate coinage, with the impression showing through the thin flan. The overall composition is compact and heraldic, consistent with North German municipal coinage of the mid-fourteenth century. |
|---|---|
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| Mintage | ND (1350-1360) |
| Additional information |
Hamburg struck these thin, single-sided bracteates during a period when the city was consolidating its commercial independence along the North Sea and Baltic trade routes. The bracteate format — a technique of pressing a single die through a flan so thin the image mirrors in relief on the reverse — was already archaic by the mid-fourteenth century in most German minting centers, making Hamburg's continued use of it notably conservative for a city otherwise aggressively modernizing its mercantile infrastructure.
At 0.28 g, the flan is exceptionally fragile. Undamaged survivors without splits or edge cracks are genuinely scarce.