The article presents the interpretation of a coin found in the Kuyavian region, Central Poland a few years ago. According to the most plausible hypothesis, it is a cast barbarian copy of a barbarian imitation of a Roman denarius. In other words, the barbarians most likely made (by casting) a copy of an imitation previously made (presumably struck) by other barbarians using a Roman original as a model. Numerous barbarian copies and barbarian imitations of Roman denarii have been recorded in recent years. However, the author of the presented article is not aware of any cast copies of imitations, therefore, taking into account the current state of research, the artefact described in the article should be considered unique.

Our aim is to show that numismatics can provide important information about early history of a settlement in the face of a shortage of other types of evidence. We will study the case of Gdańsk. There is a record on the existence of the town (urbs) of Gdańsk from 997, but no sufficiently considerable archaeological traces of this town were found. Therefore, we do not know where the oldest Gdańsk was located. Most likely, the settlement relics from that time were destroyed as a result of fortification works at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. However, the destruction of stratigraphic structures does not mean the destruction of certainly dated historical artefacts, and above all, coins. Registration of early medieval coin finds from the area of Gdańsk provides knowledge of the extent of settlement and functional changes of individual parts of the town complex.

The article is concerned with the finds of four bronze coins of Bithynia unearthed in the territory of the present-day state of Belarus: a coin of Hadrian from Rehispolle (Minsk Voblasts), which belongs to the so-called coins of the Koinon of Bithynia, and coins with the images of Julia Domna (Kopcevichy, Vitebsk Voblasts), Macrinus (Yuzafovа, Vitebsk Voblasts), and Gordian III (Pruzhany, Brest Voblasts), all issued by the mint at Nicaea. The authors argue that the coins may have reached Belarus from the Danubian provinces as well as directly from Nicaea (present-day İznik in Turkey), i.e., from those locations or territories where their participation in monetary circulation was the greatest. It is most likely that those coins may have been seized by the Barbarians during their incursions into the Roman provinces in the course of the Gothic Wars (3rd century CE).

The text is an analysis of two hoards of copper shillings (szeląg) of John Casimir Vasa (1648–1668) dating from the years 1659–1666, found in one of the arable fields at Rokitno (Lubartów County) in 1981 and 2011. The first one is made up entirely of 3,530 copper shillings (so called boratynka in singular), while in the other one, with 10,218 pieces, the same coin type accounts for 99.9%. The structures of these two hoards from Rokitno correspond with some other representative deposits of the same coin type from the localities such as Idźki-Wykno, Przasnysz, Terespol. This particular structure refers, among other things, to percentage shares of the Polish Crown and Lithuanian shillings as well as to how the individual mints and years of issue are represented in these types. The hoard unearthed in 1981 was deposited most probably in the early fourth quarter of the 17th century, whereas the one found in 2011 – shortly after 1695.

ABSTRACT:

The article is an attempt at an analysis of the information contained in Ludwig von Baczko’s article, titled Von einigen in Preussen gefundenen römischen Münzen. The text was published in 1780, in the periodical “Das preussische Tempe” in Königsberg. The information from the publication was used only by Sture Bolin in his catalogue of the finds of Roman coins (Bolin 1926). The “Das preussische Tempe” was practically lost and its only copy remained in the National Library in Moscow.

SUMMARY:

In the article Von einigen in Preussen gefundenen römischen Münzen authored by Ludwig Franz Adolf Josef von Baczko, published in the “Das preussische Tempe” in 1780 some information on the finds of antique coins was published. The author mentioned two Roman coins of Augustus and Tiberius for Livia found in the Elbląg area. The information does not allow any conclusion on whether the find was authentic and the Elbląg area was indeed the place of the discovery of two “bronze” Roman coins, one of which had the image of Justitia or Pietas on its obverse. The subsequent finds, mentioned by von Baczko, came from the areas of Klaipėda (German: Memel), Zheleznodorozhny (German: Gerdaunen), Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia), Krylowo (German: Nordenburg), Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) and Tilsit, today Sovetsk, Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia). He identified Philip the Arab as the issuer. Von Baczko provided some more questionable information concerning 83 silver coins which “had been brought from those areas to Königsberg by a Polish Jew in 1774”. The Polish Jew suggested that the coins could be easily found in Samogitia, not far from the Prussian border, in remains of an old building. Von Baczko decided that the information was incomplete as it pointed only to the existence of the foundations of an old, stone building. All the information about the 83 coins presented above bring to mind the typical accounts of coin traders of the time.

Von Baczko informed also that “he was shown a few more coins” which had been discovered, as he was said “zu Höle bei Danzig”, so in today’s Gdańsk Ujeścisko. They were silver Vespasian’s coins with images of “various Judean sacrificial vessels” on reverses, there was also a coin with the representation of a “veiled woman” and the legend IVDEA CAPTA. The information about the find appeared in all catalogues of the Roman coins found on the Polish territory. The discovery was described as a hoard consisting of an unknown number of pennies from the period between Vespasian and Septimius Severus or Caracalla (the coin struck for Julia Domna). Sture Bolin repeated the information faithfully after von Baczko, so the discovery of the 1780 “Das preussische Tempe” does not contribute much to the matter in question. The only novelty is that von Baczko questioned the find’s authenticity, supporting his opinion with a vague remark about “das zu wenig erhobene Gepräge”, which implied that he considered the coins to be contemporary products.

Further in his article, von Baczko deliberates on how the coins had got to Prussia. He refers to some unspecified writers (“verschiedene Schriftsteller”) who suspected the presence of Romans by the Baltic Sea but emphasises that he does not know any written record by a Roman historian which would confirm the Roman presence so far away from the Empire’s borders. Von Baczko then suggests that the coins may have come as loot. He observed that Old Prussians had had the custom of leaving spoils taken from their enemies in the urns of their heroes. He argued that after the urns were destroyed by time, the coins that remained came to the surface as a result of land cultivation.

Having been long searched for, when eventually found von Baczko’s article turned out not to be particularly useful in interpreting the records concerning the coins. The lack of results is, however, also a result. There are a lot of laconic and arbitrary descriptions of coins which did not help to identify particular specimens. Based on the article, we may assume that he saw the coins and identified and described them himself. The legends he quotes are usually incorrect, but they did appear on Roman coins, so he did not invent them completely. He knew what could be found on Roman coins. It is also evident that he had a considerable knowledge of ancient Rome for his times.

While comparing von Baczko’s article with similar contemporary texts one may arrive at the conclusion that it is a typical product of Prussian scholars of the time, such as A. Grübnau, M. Praetorius, C.B. Lengnich. The coins were described selectively, only those specimens that for some reason attracted the attention of the authors mentioned above. The descriptions are incomplete, what is more, the described obverses do not match the reverses. Based on von Baczko’s article, one may conclude that he wrote about what he could discern on the coin. There is much to make us believe that having read the obverse legend on one coin, he coupled it with the reverse of another coin, while a third one provided the image. Such an approach was certainly adopted in the case of the solidi from the Mrzezin hoard. The author, who signed himself with an “X” described the obverse of Anastasius I’s solidus and the reverse of the Ostrogoth imitation of the same type of coin.

The author reflects on the evaluation of the notion of money in history. In many situations coins and banknotes were a proof for the existence of local, independent, political power. People’s attitude toward money was quite an important matter, too; in many situations neither money nor those professionally dealing with money were appreciated socially. Numerous utopian movements disliked money. Communism was one of them. The communist economy was driven — at least in theory — by overwhelming planning rather than by the incentive of money. After the fall of communism a question arised whether all or nearly all public activity should be driven by money or whether some domains of social activity should rather be kept as public domains.

The reign of Bolesław I the Brave has for many years been very popular among historians and numismatists. The political history of his rule is at the centre of the research of the first one, and the history of his coinage of the latter. On the other hand, much less attention is paid to the fiscal and prestigious-symbolic contexts of the circulation of bullion, which at the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries consisted almost exclusively of imported coins and silver in a non-monetary form, mainly jewellery. This raises many questions: how did access to luxury goods affected the exercise of power? What equivalents and under what circumstances were foreign coins purchased? How did the desire to take control of the silver distribution networks between Meissen, Prague and Kiev in the first decades of the 11th century directed Bolesław’s expansion? Methodologically, the article combines the analysis of the hoards with the interpretation of written sources.

In the areas occupied by the Cherniakhiv and Wielbark archaeological cultures during the Roman period, including the areas of eastern and northern Poland, there are relatively numerous finds of Roman aurei of Trajan Decius (249–251) and his direct predecessors on the imperial throne. These coins are interpreted as part of the imperial treasury looted by the barbarians (Goths) after they won the Battle of Abritus in 251. In the same areas one can distinguish a horizon of finds of silver Roman coins, denarii and antoniniani, which cannot be directly linked to the Battle of Abritus, but more broadly, with the Goth raids on the Roman provinces in the early 250s, the spectacular culmination of which was the Battle of Abritus. This horizon is not clear in finds from southern, central and western Poland, occupied in the Roman period by the Przeworsk and Luboszyce cultures, not related to the Goths.

In the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw there are four small sets, originating from the eastern lands of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. They had belonged to the collection of Józef Choynowski and, as a deposit of the Society for the Encouragement of Fine Arts, in 1923 became a part of the Museum’s collection. They represent quite a wide time horizon, dated from the beginning of the 16th century to the half of the 17th century. Their compositions are similar to deposits from the same period, and size allow to determine them as content of purses. The older hoards are homogeneous in nature, while the later ones are more varied, including, among others, many counterfeit coins. The circumstances of their deposition are unknown.

The assemblage of coins found in the Old Town district of Lublin (6a, Wincentego Pola St., presently known as Archidiakońska St.) on 1 July 1981 consists of 21 false groschen of Sigismund III Vasa (1587–1632) and 2 fragments of unspecified coins. As a result of the research analysis, it has been found that the coins were minted in tin-coated copper. Despite the fact that the dates are decipherable only on 10 groschen coins, it may be inferred from the identity of the coin dies that 15 of them (71.4%) bear the year 1608, while 5 (23.8%) – 1607. No date has been determined for only one coin. The groschen of 1607, struck with the use of one pair of coin dies, imitate the bust / eagle type. This particular variation tends to prevail also among the pieces with the date 1608 (13 out of a total number of 15 pieces), which had been coined with the use of two pairs of dies. 1 groschen with a bust and 2 groschen with a crown image had been struck by means of some other coin dies. The fact that the forged coins were found at the site of the former townhouse owned by the mayor Jan Szembek (since 1608) allows us to presume that they may have been deposited there as a result of some administrative action taken against the illegal practice. Beginning from the early decades of the 17th century, conditions for the growth of such practices had been created and fuelled by the atmosphere of the increasing economic crisis and the resulting perturbations spreading across the monetary markets of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

The article is focused on a presentation of 16 silver calyxes owned by Mr. Piotr Maciej Przypkowski. These objects are adorned with various coins: ancient Roman (4), medieval (3), and modern (9). In addition to the coins, each vessel has Latin (12) and Polish (4) maxims as well as alchemic and astrological symbols under its rim. This is very likely the latest, attested in numismatic literature, example of historical coins being reused as decorative elements of vessels.

The text concerns the production of coins in the Litzmannstadt Ghetto (a Jewish ghetto established in the Polish city of Łódź by the German Nazi authorities). In 2019, the author contacted Mordechai Brown, who participated in the production as a 14-year-old boy. The present article has been based on his personal account. In addition, the results of the XRF analyses of the Łódź Ghetto coins have been presented.

According to the finds, Polish and Western European coins reached western Ukraine in two stages: in the 10th / 11th century and in the first half of the 12th century. Some of these coins (but usually without Polish ones) were transported further east, to the vicinity of Kiev. On the other hand, Western European coins flowed into the territories of Northern Rus’ from the north. This text is based on data contained both in the literature (including recent one) and information not yet published, kindly provided by researchers from Ukraine (A. Kryzhanivskiy) and from the Czech Republic (J. Videman).

coin hoard discovered in an unknown locality east of Saint Petersburg in Russia in 2019 ( tpq 1008/9), contained three Polish coins issued by Bolesław I the Brave of hitherto unknown types (Mikhel’son 2023). One of them bears the inscription: +POZZNANI, the oldest record of Poznań’s name, the then-capital center (Fig. 1). The reverse of this coin, like the two others, was struck from a die that contains the inscription: AЯЄAHLAT (Figs 1–3). This die was already known from the first die-chain of Bolesław the Brave’s coinage. This makes it possible to include the newly discovered coins in the die-chain. As a consequence, die-chain no. 1 can be expanded, its chronology can be made more precise (ca. 998–1010), and can help establish that the linked die-chains were used in the Poznań mint.

The author summarizes the origin and development of the thaler since its emergence in Central Europe in the 1520s to the general spread of the term “thaler” for large silver coins in the 1540s as well as the attempts to replace the thaler with another type of coin in the Roman-German Empire under the Second and Third Imperial Coin Order. The year 1566 was a major turning point. The “imperial thaler” was redefined in metrological terms and the collection of custom duties in the North Sea straits was regulated, which (instead of gold coins) continued to be collected in silver thalers. This move spurred the expansion of the thaler coins in those countries of continental Europe that used the North Sea trade route. At that time, the thaler also became the equivalent for mutual conversions of the most important monetary systems. This is evidenced by the exchange rates from the end of the 16th century from Hamburg. In them, the ”imperial thaler” serves as a tool for the mutual conversion the seven major currencies used in the North Sea and Baltic trade areas (the Lübeck mark, the Hamburg pound, the Antwerp pound, the Amsterdam pound, the imperial Rhine gulden, the Lisbon milreis and the Polish gulden).

The present article is a short and very preliminary report about the Hellenistic coins found during excavations conducted by the team of the Institute of Archaeology, Jagiellonian University at the agora of the ancient Nea Paphos in 2011–2019. The first archaeological research at the agora had been conducted in the late 1960s and 1970s by Kyriakos Nicolaou. The Jagiellonian University team, led by Ewdoksia Papuci-Władyka started to explore the agora area in 2011. There were at least 480 coins and coin flans found during the Polish excavations. Great part of them are minted in the Hellenistic Period. The group consists mainly of Ptolemaic coins (over 67%), but includes also Cypriot bronzes of the Zeus/Zeus type (20.5%), coins of Syro-Palestinian region (Seleucid, Hasmonean rulers – over 6%), Macedonian-Antigonid issues (3.8%), the coins from south-eastern Aegean and Asia Minor (1.6%) as well as others. Some preliminary observations concerning chronology and structure of the finds are presented.

In the first centuries after Christ, the Indian subcontinent entered the orbit of the Roman state’s trade interests. The subject of the exchange was a number of goods, including Roman coins. Their influx is documented by numerous finds as well as by ancient authors. One of the territories where we register quite a large number of Roman coin finds is the area of early historical Andhra. The specimens discovered here are found in various contexts, indicating their various applications. The hoards of silver and gold coins allow the observation of successive waves of the influx of Roman money, which is also confirmed by the finds of other categories – stray and settlement. The internal differentiation of the latter also allowed to define their mutual relations and tendencies in circulation. Observations of numismatic material and analysis of sources indicate that Roman coins could have had the function of a medium of exchange or payment in Andhra or, more broadly, India, but also played a bullion and prestigious role. The time of the influx of Roman money indicates that it was associated primarily with the period of the Satavahana Empire in Andhra. The essentially small number of registered Roman coins in relation to the territory and its role in trade indicates that the coins were only one, perhaps not a key element of Indo-Roman trade.

The starting point for this text was the publication of a coin, assigned to Bolesław I the Brave (992–1025), Prince of Poland, with the name BOLEZLAV and a two-side representation of a chapel (Grossmanová, Matejko-Peterka, Kašparová 2018; Fig. 4). It is currently stored in the Moravian Museum in Brno. This coin has been known in the literature since the mid-19th century (Cappe 1850). Former researchers assigned it either to Boleslav III in the Bohemia (Cappe 1850; Hanka 1856) or to Bolesław I the Brave in Poland (Stronczyński 1884; Fiala 1895; Gumowski 1939). Newer researchers ignored it completely, suspecting that it was some kind of imitation or contemporary falsification. However, its authenticity is supported by the fact that it was originally in the collection of H. Dannenberg. Finally, the matter was decided by the publication in the auction catalogue (Warszawskie Centrum Numizmatyczne, Auction no. 67, item 132) of a coin minted on one side with the same die as the coin from Brno (Fig. 5). This allows us to postulate the existence of a new fourth die-chain in the coinage of Bolesław I the Brave (Fig. 6).

This article discusses finds of Roman coins made during excavations in Novae (Bulgaria), by the University of Warsaw’s Research Center on the Antiquity of Southeastern Europe. Novae is a Roman legionary camp in the province of Moesia, associated mainly with the Legion I Italica. However, the camp was built by the Legion VIII Augusta. The article analyzes the coin finds from 60 years of excavations at this archaeological site, coming from the area of the so-called sector IV and sector XII. Sector IV is mainly the Legion I military hospital ( valetudinarium), while Sector XII is referred to as the Legion VIII cohort barracks area. The aim of the article is to present a model of the circulation of Roman coins in the areas of legionary camps on the lower Danube.

Amongst the early variations of the so-called Otto-Adelheid-pennies are coins with five pellets within the church. They exist in two varieties in respect of the distribution of the four letters ODDO in the cross angles. It can be shown that both are from the same unlocalised mint. The number of dies is rather small and that the variety with O-O-D-D precedes O-D-D-O. Issuing must have started soon after 983/984 and probably was ended before c. 993.

This article focuses on two early medieval imitative coins found in Bohemia (one in the vicinity of Hradec Králové / Königgrätz in 1931; the other in Prague–Klánovice in 2016). The coins were probably struck in 1010–1015, and on the obverse imitate the Saxon denarii of the Otto-Adelheid type with the letters O-D-D-O in the arms of the cross. On the reverse, there is a church with the letters •VIDV, imitating Bavarian or Bohemian denarii from the second half of the 10th century. The location of most of the finds of these denarii in central Europe, including both coins found in Bohemia, indicates their Polish origin. Nevertheless, their issuer remains uncertain.

This article discusses the discovery of a hoard of gold coins in Zalewo (formerly Saalfeld). The duke of Prussia, Albrecht Frederick, was informed about the discovery by the Hauptmann of Przezmark ( Preussisch Mark), who sent him 144 coins in 1572. The Hauptmann also described the process of how the coins were obtained. These coins were described by the archivist at the dukes‘s court as florentinische Guldtgulden – which means ”florentine gold florins“. The authors claim, that this is the first described discovery of gold florins from Zalewo. A similar discovery was recorded in Zalewo in 1991. The coins sent in 1572 possibly became a part of the collection of the Duke of Prussia. Some of the gold florins found in 1991 were donated to the Museum of Warmia and Mazury.

Two whole and four halved Brandenburg deniers were found near Międzyrzecz. They were probably a part of a hoard discovered earlier, perhaps at the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The circumstances of the discovery did not allow for obtaining metrological data, but the authenticity of the find should not raise any doubts. The coins of Margraviate origin (undoubtedly there are at least four of them: Nos 1–4), were indicatively minted in the 1275–1295 period. The last two deniers (Nos 5 and 6) are also undoubtedly Ascanian, although their Brandenburg origin is not certain (they may belong to the Anhalt or Saxon-Wittenberg issue). All identified Brandenburg deniers from the vicinity of Międzyrzecz have analogies in finds registered in Poland within present borders. This small hoard, according to the newest systematics, was hidden around the year 1300.

In the 14th century, copper coins of Galician Ruthenia were minted at the Lviv mint, most of which can be easily attributed to dated issuers. However, among them there are coins of two types that arouse controversy. These are variants with a crown on both sides of the coin ( crown/crown type) and a coin with two initials ( K/crowned L type). Almost all researchers, with the exception of perhaps only Borys Paszkiewicz, date the coins of the crown/crown type to the period before 1370, when the Polish King Casimir III the Great ruled in Galician Ruthenia. The analysis of the dies and die-chains presented in the present article allow us to attribute the coins to Louis of Hungary and refer their issue to the years 1378–1382, as suggested by B. Paszkiewicz. So far, coins of the K/crowned L type were dated to the years of the reign of Louis of Hungary. However, the analysis of the material from hoards and the shape of the punch with letter L indicate that they were minted during the interregnum in Lviv, i.e. between the end of 1370 (the date of King Casimir’s death) and October 1372 (when Władysław Opolczyk, who was appointed the governor of the Hungarian king, Louis in Galician Ruthenia, arrived in Lviv).