Denier Bracteate - Ladislaus I the Short Kraków mint

Łokietek's path to minting these pieces was anything but straightforward. He lost Kraków to Wenceslaus II of Bohemia in 1291, spent years as a fugitive prince, and only reasserted control over the city after Wenceslaus III's assassination in 1306 left the Přemyslid line extinct. The bracteate series issued from Kraków reflects a political claim as much as a monetary one — thin silver coinage struck by a duke still fighting to consolidate Polish lands that had been fragmented for over a century.

Bracteate production in Małopolska was already technically marginal by this period, and pieces of this weight rarely survived circulation intact.