The discovery of New Die Chains of Bolesław the Brave’s Coinage and Their Results. An Unknown Hoard from Geiseltal near Merseburg

Abstract

Thanks to the discovery of new die links of Bolesław the Brave (992–1025) coins, the image of Polish coinage at the beginning of the 11th century has been corrected. Coins were minted at that time in Poznań and Gniezno. Since many coin types were issued in short time intervals, the dies used to strike them linked to each other many times. This is how die chains were created. So far, four such chains were identified. A hitherto unknown hybrid of the Bavarian-Saxon type has been identified in a hoard from Geiseltal in Saxony (Merseburg-Querfurt District, tpq 1070). Die of one of this coin sides is linked with dies from chain no. 3, while the second die is embedded in chain 4. So it turned out that chains 3 and 4 connect. As a consequence, chain 3 was enlarged and chain 4 did not exist at all. In addition, it was possible to distinguish three other coins, one side of which was previously unknown. Thanks to this, chains 2 and 3 were extended. Of particular importance is the discovery of the previously missing imitation of the obverse of the Cologne-type die. Until now, only the reverse of this coin was well known.