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!
Obol - Boleslaus I the Cruel
| Issuer | Kingdom of Bohemia |
|---|---|
| Year | 935-972 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| 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) | Cach#37 |
| Obverse description | Central field dominated by a stylized frontal bust or figure, rendered in the primitive Romanesque manner characteristic of early Bohemian coinage. Flanking the central motif are a crescent to the left and a circular annulet to the right, both common decorative elements on Přemyslid issues. The upper field features a row of pellets or star-like ornaments forming a border segment. The overall design is boldly struck but coarsely executed, consistent with the hand-hammered technique of tenth-century Bohemian mint production. No legible legend is present, the design relying entirely on symbolic imagery. |
|---|---|
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | ND (935-972) |
| Additional information |
Boleslaus I earned his epithet by murdering his brother Wenceslas in 935 — the same Wenceslas later canonized and commemorated in carol — and then held Bohemia against the Ottonian empire for fourteen years of near-continuous warfare before submitting to Otto I around 950. These obols, among the earliest struck coinage of Bohemia, were produced under a ruler who simultaneously built the Přemyslid state into a functioning political entity and maintained it by force. Cach 37 is a cross-type attribution within a series where die links and weight variation still generate scholarly disagreement over precise dating.