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Denier Bracteate - Anonymous Sword right, key left and down, star left, right, and above

Issuer Bishopric of Dorpat
Year 1248-1346
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Orientation Variable alignment ↺
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Obverse description Central device comprising a sword and a key crossed saltire-wise, the sword oriented diagonally to the right and the key diagonally to the lower left, both rendered in low relief characteristic of bracteate coinage. Three six-pointed stars occupy the field: one above the crossed device, one to the left, and one to the right. The entire composition is enclosed within a raised border of large pellets forming a continuous inner ring, set against the plain bracteate flan. The design is anonymous, with no legend, referencing the episcopal symbols of the Bishopric of Dorpat — the sword of secular authority and the key of Saint Peter.
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

Dorpat — modern Tartu, Estonia — was a Livonian bishop's seat whose monetary authority operated in constant tension with the Teutonic Knights and the town's merchant class throughout the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. These anonymous bracteates circulated across a Baltic region where German commercial penetration was reshaping local exchange networks, and the near-century-long attribution window reflects genuine scholarly uncertainty: the types were struck under multiple bishops and re-issued without updating iconography. At 0.13 g, these were among the most fragile coins in regular Livonian use, and surviving examples without buckling or flan splits are genuinely uncommon.