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Denier Bracteate - Henry
| Issuer | Margravate of Meissen |
|---|---|
| Year | 1221-1250 |
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| Currency | Denier |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Full-length frontal effigy of a margrave, depicted standing within a raised inner circle, holding a long sword downward to the left and a lily scepter to the right. The figure is rendered in a stylized Romanesque manner with schematic facial features and decorative body articulation. The coin is a single-sided bracteate with the design struck in high relief against a plain field, with no legend. The broad, flat flan shows the characteristic thin fabric and irregular edge typical of 13th-century German bracteate coinage. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
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| Reverse description | Incuse mirror image of the obverse design, as characteristic of bracteate coinage struck on a single thin flan. |
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| Additional information |
The Margravate of Meissen produced bracteates in quantity during the thirteenth century as part of the broader Central European shift toward thin single-sided coinage — a minting practice that allowed faster production but created coins so fragile that many surviving specimens show stress fractures along the edges. The "Henry" designation here almost certainly refers to Heinrich the Illustrious, who became Margrave in 1221 and presided over a period of aggressive territorial expansion financed in part by the silver mines of the Erzgebirge.
Schwink 532a is among the more precisely catalogued of Meissen's bracteate types. Die alignment on bracteates is largely irrelevant by definition, but flan quality varies considerably within this type.