A highly rare piece, with interesting iconography.
According to Witold Garbaczewski, the motif depicted on the coin is a head in a circle, either seen as a halo or seen as a bowl - another important attribute of the saint, on which this head of St. John the Baptist (already decapitated) was brought to Herd Antipas and Herodias, thus fulfilling Herodias' wish (expressed through the mouth of her daughter Salome after the famous dance at Herodias' birthday party) when the saint publicly denounced the union of the two. The circle was situated on a beam, which may symbolically indicate decapitation. The highlighting of this episode on the stamp is not surprising, given that the feast of the beheading of St. John the Baptist, one of the two main ones (besides the celebrated Birth) dedicated to him, was celebrated in the 11th-14th centuries in almost all dioceses.
In Onebid's auction archive, we found only three complete pieces of this type, over a period of more than 30 years!
Absent from the great brakteat collection sold by GN Marciniak in 2020.
A magnificent mint piece with strong luster throughout, charming delicate patina.
AMAZING presentation.
For the best collections - a great rarity in such a state of preservation.
Obverse: head of St. John the Baptist on a beam in front in auerola, below it a cross, floral motifs on the sides?
