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Denier Bracteate - Henry `the Admirable`
| Issuer | Principality of Luneburg (Brunswick-Luneburg, German States) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1286-1322 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Round |
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| Obverse description | Within a broad beaded border, a rampant lion passant leaps to the left with its head turned en face toward the viewer, rendered in the schematic style characteristic of North German medieval bracteate coinage. The heraldic lion, emblematic of the House of Welf, is depicted in high relief against the flat bracteate flan, its mane rendered as a series of raised pellets or lobes. Beneath the lion, in the lower field, appears an inverted L-shaped symbol or letter-like mark serving as a mintmaster's or workshop identifier. The entire composition is contained within a roughly circular beaded inner ring, with no legend or inscription present. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Uniface bracteate; the reverse is blank, showing only the incuse mirror impression of the obverse design as is typical of this thin, single-sided coinage type. |
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| Additional information |
Henry "the Admirable" — Herzog Heinrich I von Braunschweig-Grubenhagen, so nicknamed for reasons the sources leave frustratingly vague — ruled Lüneburg during a period of constant Welf dynastic fragmentation, when the Brunswick-Lüneburg territories were being subdivided among competing heirs with almost every generation. Bracteates of this type were the dominant local currency of the Saxon north precisely because their thin, single-die fabric made them cheap to produce in quantity, though it also made them extraordinarily vulnerable to damage. Surviving examples without creases or rim losses are genuinely uncommon.