The royal denarii of Bolesław Szczodry are an issue that, despite the diversity resulting from the technique of creating the stamps of the time, are very consistent. The main difference in their stamps, aside from the cut of the hand-cut crowned bust itself, is the effect of additional marks placed by engravers in the figure fields.
On the vast majority of stamps this is the letter Z (often accompanied by a small cross, less often by dots), which is well reflected in our archive. Out of about 30 listings of this type, only three times were other characters (different arrangements of dots, as is well demonstrated by a piece from 10 Marciniak auctions, which sold for more than 10 thousand zlotys). All the others were variants of varieties with the letter Z.
The variety with a bachelor's cross on the obverse we did not have.
It is very rare, which is confirmed by its listing, but also by the literature. Marian Gumowski, in Corpus Nummorum Poloniae, described more than 60 variants of these denarii, but only one of them was with a cross in front of the bust. It was known to him only from the collection of the Zamoyski Library in Warsaw. However, it was a different variant - with a small cross, instead of the large cavalier one, and without rows behind the bust.
This is also an interesting and research-relevant variety, which may link the two Boleslaw issues. As the cavalier cross, characterized by expanded arms, is also found on denarii with a horseman.
Very nice state of preservation.
