Rataje brakteates are a group of rare medieval coins that owe their name to the village of Rataje in Lower Silesia (Wroclaw Province), where their treasure was discovered in 1850. Comprising more than a dozen types of workshop-consistent brakteates, the issues of which are attributed to 13th-century Wroclaw princes of the Piast dynasty: Henry I the Bearded or Henry II the Pious. Today, the coins are prized, and in the form of sets like this one, uncommon at auctions.
This is a lot of three types, which come from the famous collection of Henry Karolkiewicz (he acquired two of them from the Sawicki collection). Complete with a card from his auction.
Noteworthy not only for their interesting provenance, but also for the fact that they are not their popular types. Particularly the first one in the photo, showing a head flanked by points, in a gate, over which three towers are visible. This is the type assigned to this group by Kopicki (with a rarity grade of R6), similar iconographically to the type illustrated in Dannenberg (no.1), but with more complex (instead of schematic) towers and other markings on the sides of the head. Present in our offer for the first time.
In addition to it in the set: a type with a head under a sharp arch of pearl beams, flanked by crosses, points and dashes, with unspecified marks above the arch, and in the lower row, a type with two busts facing each other, on an arch, holding together a spar located on the arch, on which is set a ring with a ball in the center (perhaps a pastoral).
