The Ossolineum bought the coin discussed in this article at the 58th auction of the Warsaw Numismatic Centre held on 8 November 2014. It was initially identified as a Gothic imitation of an aureus of Severus Alexander, most probably made in the Chernyakhiv culture. Only after close examination was it revealed that the coin had a runic inscription, which was part of the matrix and not carved on the coin. This means that it is the oldest known runic coin, as it should be dated to 271–332, whereas other runic coins or gold Scandinavian bracteates are dated no earlier than to the fi fth century AD. The authenticity of the specimen has been confi rmed by microscopic examination, comparative analysis of other imitations, numismatic objects produced in an analogical method or style and metal analyses. Attempts to trace the provenance of the specimen failed. The meaning of the inscription cannot be ascertained. The discovery of runic signs on the coin has serious implications for our knowledge of ancient East Germanic peoples. It means that we have to date the beginnings of Germanic coinage at least two centuries earlier than has been accepted until recently. We must also accept that the links between the Baltic and Black Sea regions were very close.

The Author is an expert on United States’ maritime (admiralty) law and on American legislative process.

The Rotterdam Rules, or the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partially by the Sea, drafted by the UN General Assembly on 11 December 2008 (Resolution 63/122), create a new legal order on affreightment and thus aim at replacing the Hague Rules, the Hague-Visby Rules and the Hamburg Rules.

The Author argues that the dominant legislative contribution to the draft is American. The United States have amended their own maritime law and, at the same time, internationalized some of its content. If the US ratification process is completed within the next 2 years with the signature of the President, the USA, representing 25% of the world’s overall tonnage, shall be the game-changer in international law on carriage of goods by the sea.

An experimental study was conducted in order to investigate two-phase flow regimes and fully developed pressure drop in a mini-size, horizontal rectangular channel. The test section was machined in the form of an impacting tee junction in an acrylic block (in order to facilitate visualization) with a rectangular cross-section of 1.87-mm height on 20-mm width on the inlet and outlet sides. Pressure drop measurement and flow regime identification were performed on all three sides of the junction. Air-water mixtures at 200 kPa (abs) and room temperature were used as the test fluids. Four flow regimes were identified visually: bubbly, plug, churn, and annular over the ranges of gas and liquid superficial velocities of 0.04 ≤ JG ≤ 10 m/s and 0.02 ≤ JL ≤ 0.7 m/s, respectively, and a flow regime map was developed. Accuracy of the pressure-measurement technique was validated with single-phase, laminar and turbulent, fully developed data. Two-phase experiments were conducted for eight different inlet conditions and various mass splits at the junction. Comparisons were conducted between the present data and former correlations for the fully developed two-phase pressure drop in rectangular channels with similar sizes. Wide deviations were found among these correlations, and the correlations that agreed best with the present data were identified.