A historically important, striking brakteat.
This is a coin that was once called a penance coin, seeing in it a reference to Prince Boleslaw's pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Adalbert in Gniezno in 1113. It referred to penance for the blinding and death of his older brother, Zbigniew. Only the discovery of the treasure in 1932 and its analysis by Ryszard Kiersnowski shed new light on its iconography. He linked it to the Wrymouth's manifesto after the Polish prince paid tribute in Merseburg before Emperor Lotar III. He dated the event to around 1135.The iconography was said to proclaim that the Polish prince was under the protection of St. Adalbert, hence the designation of bracelets of this type as patronage.
Nowadays, including in the context of Vytautas Nakielski's research, the first interpretations are being revisited, seeing in this scene an absolution - washing away from the ruler the curse of Archbishop Martin, cast for killing his brother. The beginning of this issue dates to 1113, and it was probably minted until the prince's death in 1138.
The broad disc of the bracteate was the perfect vehicle for this, as while retaining the weight of the denarius, it was almost 2.5 times the diameter of the denarius, allowing the coin to be used much better as a means of manifestation.
The present piece is very nicely preserved, and in addition being a very rare variety with a legend separated by punctuation, illustrated in Stronczynski, among others
