Gold bracteates commonly denote a certain type of jewelry, made mainly in the 5th to 7th century AD, represented by numerous gold specimens. Bead-rimmed and fitted with a loop, most were intended to be worn suspended by a string around the neck, supposedly as an amulet. The gold for the bracteates came from coins paid as peace money by the Roman Empire to their Northern Germanic neighbors.
Motifs
Many of the bracteates feature ruler portraits of Germanic kings with characteristic hair that is plaited back and depictions of figures from Germanic mythology influenced to varying extents by Roman coinage while others feature entirely new motifs. The motifs are commonly those of Germanic mythology and some are believed to be Germanic pagan icons giving protection or for divination. Often depicted is a figure with a horse, birds and sometimes a spear – that some scholars interpret as a representation of the Germanic godWodan – and aspects of the figure that would later appear in 13th century depictions as Odin such as the Poetic Edda. For this reason the bracteates are a target of iconographic studies by scholars interested in Germanic religion. Several bracteates also feature runic alphabet inscriptions. Numerous Bracteates feature swastikas as a common motif.
Typology
The typology for bracteates divides them into several letter-named categories, a system introduced in an 1855 treatise by the Danish numismatist Christian Jürgensen Thomsen named Om Guldbracteaterne og Bracteaternes tidligste Brug som Mynt and finally defined formally by the Swedish numismatist Oscar Montelius in his 1869 treatise Från jernåldern:
A-bracteates : showing the face of a human, modelled after antique imperial coins
B-bracteates : one to three human figures in standing, sitting or kneeling positions, often accompanied by animals
C-bracteates : showing a male's head above a quadruped, often interpreted as the Germanic god Woden.
D-bracteates : showing one or more highly stylized animals
E-bracteates : showing an animal triskele under a circular feature
F-bracteates : as a subgroup of the D-bracteates, showing an imaginary animal
M-'bracteates' : two-sided imitations of Roman imperial medallions
Corpus
More than 1,000 Migration Period bracteates of type A-, B-, C-, D-, and F are known in total. Of these, 135 bear Elder Futhark inscriptions which are often very short; the most notable inscriptions are found on the Seeland-II-C, Vadstena and Tjurkö bracteates. To these can be added the ca. 270 E-bracteates, which belong to the Vendel Period and thus are slightly later than the other types. They were produced only on Gotland, and while the earlier bracteates all were made from gold, many E-bracteates were made from silver or bronze. The German historian Karl Hauck, Danish archaeologist Morten Axboe and German runologist Klaus Düwel have worked since the 1960s to create a complete corpus of the early Germanic bracteates from the migration period, complete with large scale photographs and drawings. This has been published in three volumes in German named Die Goldbrakteaten der Völkerwanderungszeit. Ikonographischer Katalog. A catalogue supplement is included in Heizmann & Axboe 2011.
Early medieval bracteates
Silver bracteates are different from the migration period bracteates. They were the predominant regional coinage type minted in German-speaking areas beginning at around 1130 in Saxony and Thuringia and lasted well into the 14th century. From a currency point of view, bracteates were a typical "regional penny" currency of the time. Medieval silver bracteates are one-sided, embossed pennies from thin silver sheet, with a diameter of 22 to 45 mm. The coin image appears in a high relief, while the back remains hollow. The large area left much room for artistic representations. Usual were three denominations, a two-penny with elaborate image, a one-penny with coarse image and hollow coins worth half a penny. The bracteates were usually called back regularly, about once or twice a year, and must be exchanged for new coins. For example, receiving three new coins for four old coins. The withheld 4th coin was called strike money and was often the only tax revenue of the coin mint-master. This system worked like a demurrage: People wouldn't hoard their coins, because they lost their value. So, this money was used more as a medium of exchange than for storing value. This increased the velocity of money and stimulated the economy. This disruption disturbed the business interests of all those who were involved in the then money economy, namely the merchants who dominated in the German city leagues. The city leagues then introduced from 1413 a so-called Ewiger Pfennig. The last bracteates were "traveller bracteates", embossed medallions worn as a pendant, that served as a type of presence mark for pilgrims and were in use until the 17th century. In some cantons of Switzerland, bracteate-like rappen, heller, and angster were produced during the 18th century.
