Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier Bracteate - Albert the Bear
| Issuer | Ballenstedt, County of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1123-1170 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Bonh#538, Löbbecke#394, Berger#1752-4 |
| Obverse description | Half-length frontal effigy of Albrecht (Albert the Bear), robed and crowned, holding a sword in his right hand and a banner in his left, depicted within an architectural frame consisting of a turreted central arch flanked by two lateral towers with conical roofs. The composition is characteristic of Romanesque bracteate die work, with the figure rendered in low relief against the flat flan. Small annulets are distributed around the figure within the field, serving as decorative fillers. The entire design is contained within a plain inner circle, with the irregular edge of the hammered flan visible beyond. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Uniface bracteate; the reverse is entirely blank and shows only the incuse mirror impression of the obverse design, as is characteristic of the bracteate technique in which a single die strikes a thin silver flan to produce a one-sided coin. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Albert I of Ascania — the man history calls "the Bear" — spent much of his reign fighting to consolidate the Northern March, eventually receiving it from Emperor Lothar III in 1134 and transforming it into the Margraviate of Brandenburg. These bracteates were struck across a long window of political turbulence, and the thin fabric characteristic of early German bracteate production means survivors with full, uncracked flans are genuinely scarce. The type is catalogued across three standard references without consensus on precise subtype attribution, which itself reflects the decentralized minting reality of mid-twelfth century Saxon lordships.