Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Denier Bracteate - Walter II
| Issuer | County of Arnstein |
|---|---|
| Year | 1135-1166 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Denier |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | A heraldic eagle displayed with spread wings perches atop a rounded arch, rendered in bold Romanesque relief characteristic of 12th-century German bracteate coinage. Flanking the eagle to either side are architectural elements: a tall cylindrical tower to the left and a domed rotunda or turret to the right, both depicted in stylized profile. A palmette or fan-shaped foliate ornament appears below the arch in the lower field, completing the composition. The design is enclosed within a raised concentric border, and the entire type is struck in the thin single-sided bracteate technique, producing a mirror-image incuse on the reverse. No legend or inscription is present. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Walter II of Arnstein ruled a modest Thuringian county whose coinage output was limited by both territory and political reach. The bracteate format — struck on a single thin flan so that the design pressed through as a mirror image on the reverse — was the dominant coinage technology across central German territories in the twelfth century, adopted partly because it required less silver per blank than a standard two-sided strike. Arnstein's issues in this period are among the thinner survivals from the Saxon-Thuringian minting zone, and the county itself was absorbed into the Archbishopric of Mainz shortly after Walter II's death.