Catalog
Denier Bracteate
| Issuer | Hamburg, Free Hanseatic city of |
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| Year | 1400-1435 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | 21 mm |
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| Obverse description | Central device depicting the Hamburg castle emblem: a fortified gateway flanked by two towers, each surmounted by a globus, with a nettleleaf (Hamburg civic symbol) positioned to the sinister side of the gateway. The entire design is enclosed within a broad radiating border of fine rays, characteristic of the bracteate fabric. The composition is rendered in low relief typical of hammered pfennig coinage of the Hanseatic period. |
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| Reverse description | Uniface bracteate; reverse is blank, showing only the incuse impression of the obverse design as a natural consequence of the single-die hammered striking technique. |
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| Additional information |
Hamburg's bracteate deniers of this period were struck during the city's consolidation as a self-governing commercial power within the Hanseatic League, when municipal coinage served the dense network of Baltic and North Sea trade rather than any feudal authority. The extreme thinness of bracteate fabric — a single-sided strike on a broad, fragile flan — made these coins poorly suited to heavy circulation, and surviving examples with intact edges are genuinely uncommon.
Jesse's classification remains the standard reference for northern German bracteates, though Gaedechens documented significant die variation within this Hamburg type.