Germany, Saxony, Count Thietmar Billung, c.1025-35, pfennig

Obv. +\IADMER, a cross with pellets in angles.

Rev. +mAo\HVoHEIVo, a triquetra and three pellets.

Silver, 19.5 mm. Dannenberg 1291 (for attribution see p. 618). Grade IV, cracks, pecks.

Tadeusz Kałkowski in his popular book, Thousand Years of Polish Coin, argued that this penny, inscribed with HIADMERVS, may be a coin of a forgotten prince of the Polabian Slavs named Chotomir. The actual issuer of this coin, Thietmar (d. 1048), was the son of Bernard I, Duke of Saxony, and brother of Bernard II. He was a member of the Billung family which ruled the Duchy of Saxony from 973 to 1106. Another descendant of this family was Wichmann the Younger, a famous adventurer and enemy of Mieszko I. Thietmar’s appanage as a younger member of the princely family is unknown, as is the location of his mint. In the inscription on the reverse, Dutch numismatists tried to read the name Stavoren (today in Friesland in the Netherlands), which, however, is doubtful (see ‘Jaarboek van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Genootschap voor Munt- en Penningkunde’, 1939, pp. 9-10). Dannenberg 1559 knows of an example with repeated THIADMERVS legend on the reverse around the triquetra. Indicating Lüneburg as the mint seat is based solely on the fact that this coin belongs to the Billung family and is not sufficiently justified either.

Numista Rarity index: 100.