A distinctive bracelet showing the ruler as armed, ready for battle.
This seemingly simple iconography includes many attributes important to rulers of the time. These include the pennant - a symbol of princely power, the sword - associated with strength and courage, and armor with a helmet. While the pointed helmet is common for Piast coins, the present armor, clearly not a spike, is representative. As we can read in "Iconography...": the presentation of the armor was an important stage of the ruler's enthronement ceremony, so it also had a momentous role in creating the ideal image of the mint lord.
Very nice luster. Light crumbling of the rim and cracks, but a nice coin, fully legible. Despite the slight crumbling of the rim on the right side, an outstanding piece with beautiful mint luster and stamp quality.
A very rare commercial brakteat.
We only had this type at one auction - as part of the sale of an outstanding medieval collection at auction 10.
Ex. Pes 360/1572 (Reinhold Merkens collection).
