West Slavs, denier, early 11th century.
Obv. …ꟵOΛTV●Ⱶ●…; cross pattee (slightly widened at the ends), annulets in angles.
Rv. +RECINS mirrored; temple, ○DIS on the facade.
Silver, 0.99 g, 19.5 mm.
Grade: F, slightly bent, cracked, but well glued. Two pecks marks, small scratches. Fully legible.
Obv. is a distant imitation of the East Saxon Otto-Adelaide pennies, minted since 985. Rev. it is a quite faithful imitation of a Bavarian penny of moneyer "Sigi-" of the Ratisbon mint from the times of Duke Henry II (c. 967-972). As noted by Peter Ilisch (WN 1994), these two distant geographical patterns could practically be combined only in Slavic areas, where coins from both directions mixed in circulation. So far, two similar imitations have been identified, with the signatures ●VIDU and +JIVA (the latter also referred to the Bavarian mint master "Sigi-"). Despite the discovery of subsequent die-linked imitations, the die chains have not yet been reached Boleslaus the Brave's coins. The penny offered is very similar to them, but - as far as we know - no analogous coins have been known so far and, so far, there are no die links for it.
