Denier Bracteate - Mieszko III the Old Gniezno or Kalisz mint

Mieszko III ruled Greater Poland twice — expelled by his own nobles in 1177, he spent decades maneuvering to reclaim power before finally dying in office in 1202. The bracteate format, a single-sided thin silver strike produced by pressing the die through the blank so the design appears in relief on one face and intaglio on the other, was the dominant coin technology in this part of Europe during the fragmentation period that followed Bolesław III's division of Poland among his sons in 1138. Gniezno and Kalisz were the principal administrative centers of Greater Poland, and attribution between the two mints for individual Kop#97 specimens remains unresolved.