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Denier Bracteate 'Ewiger pfennig'
| Issuer | Brunswick, City of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1412 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Rampant lion passant to sinister rendered in bold relief, characteristic of the Brunswick civic heraldic tradition, occupying the central field of this thin single-sided bracteate flan. The lion is depicted with flowing mane and raised forepaw, its body shown in profile against a plain concave field. Multiple large pellets are distributed around the lion in the surrounding field, serving both as decorative fill and as design markers typical of Lower Saxon bracteate coinage. The flan edges are irregular with characteristic splits from the hammered striking process. No legend or inscription is present. |
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| Reverse description | Incuse mirror impression of the obverse design, as is inherent to bracteate coinage struck on a single thin flan. The reverse shows the recessed negative of the lion and surrounding pellets with no additional design elements, inscription, or intentional decoration. |
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| Additional information |
The "Ewiger pfennig" — literally "eternal penny" — takes its name from a monetary agreement binding participating towns to maintain a fixed, unchanging coinage rather than the periodic revaluation and re-minting cycles that plagued medieval German currency. Under the usual system, lords profited by calling in old coins and reissuing at reduced silver content; the eternal penny compact was a direct commercial resistance to that practice. Brunswick joined such arrangements as its merchant class demanded predictable exchange rates with Hanseatic trading partners.
The bracteate fabric — a single-sided striking on a thin flan — was by this period already archaic for northern Germany, a regional conservatism that persisted well into the fifteenth century.