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A bracteate (from the Latin bractea, a thin piece of metal) is a flat, thin, single-sided gold medal worn as jewelry that was produced in Northern Europe predominantly during the Migration Period of the Germanic Iron Age (including the Vendel era in Sweden). Bracteate coins are also known from the medieval kingdoms around the Bay of Bengal, such as Harikela and Mon State city-states. The term is also used for thin discs, especially in gold, to be sewn onto clothing in the ancient world, as found for example in the ancient Persian Oxus treasure, and also later silver coins produced in central Europe during the Early Middle Ages.
Often depicted is a figure with a Sleipnir, birds and sometimes a Gungnir – that some scholars interpret as a representation of the Germanic god Wodan – 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 (a total of 133 inscriptions on bracteates are known, amounting to more than a third of the entire Elder Futhark corpus). Numerous Bracteates feature as a common motif.
To these can be added the ca. 270 E-bracteates (Gaimster 1998), 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 (apart from a few English pieces) 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.
Medieval silver bracteates are one-sided, stamped pfennigs 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- pfennig ( Blaffert) with elaborate image, a one- pfennig ( Hohlpfennig) with coarse image and hollow coins worth half a pfennig ( Scherf).
The bracteates were usually called back regularly, about once or twice a year, and had to be exchanged for new coins ( Renovatio Monetae). 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 currency: 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 Hanseatic League. The city leagues then introduced from 1413 a so-called Ewiger Pfennig ("eternal penny").
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.
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