The subject examined in the article is the propaganda programme of emperors, members of the Constantinian dynasty, as documented by inscriptions and iconography of medallions. These the author proposes to analyse in the context of late-antique rhetoric texts (Orationes of Themisthius, Panegyrici Latini) and ideas of Eusebius Pamphilius contained in Vita Constantini. The conclusion furnished by this analysis is that the propaganda content broadcast in the works of rhetoric is closely related to the message communicated by the medallions and is an expression of a coherent ideological programme.
The purpose of this paper is to analyse the silver hoards from 10th century Greater Poland in the context of the Piast “state” formation and try to explain the expansion of Piast rulership and power in relation to the long-distance trade.
The Compendium of Polish Medals is the first work on the history of Polish medallic art. The summary of work’s creation process, its assumptions and methodology together with opinions of readers and posterity have been presented below.
From the territory of present day Poland, occupied during the Roman Period by the Przeworsk Culture and the Wielbark Culture, we currently have a record on ten hoards of Roman Imperial silver coinage, 1st to 3rd century (denarii, and a single denarii-and-antoniniani hoard), which also contain one, at most, two Republican or Augustan issues. A comparison of the structure of these hoards with the hoards known from other regions of Barbaricum and the territory of the Roman Empire supports the argument that these early denarii entered the region to the north of the Carpathian range with the later coins during the Imperial period, the second to the mid-third century. Perhaps, some pre-Neronian denarii, known from single and cumulative finds recorded in the Przeworsk and Wielbark culture territory were introduced to the same area during that age.
Eight coins (seven medieval and one modern) were found during archaeological rescue excavation on the Main Market Square in Kalisz in 2012. Four coins (including one fragment) are hohlpfennigs, probably all of them are of Polish origin (from Greater Poland?) and date from the thirteenth-fourteenth century. The next three are: a halved penny, perhaps from the end of the thirteenth century, West Pomeranian penny and, probably, a Silesian heller from the fourteenth-fifteenth century. The modern coin is a heavily worn copper shilling by John Casimir (1648–1668).
In 1972 a seventeenth century wooden church has been moved from Bączal Dolny to an open-air museum. Over 30 coins dating back to a period ranging between the middle seventeenth century and the middle twentieth century have been found in thxe place where the church used to be located. Lack of older coins proves that if there was another church in this area before the 1600s, it could not have been erected on the same spot.
This work is focused on the references to hiding, withdrawing and searching for townsmen hoards in modern times, found in the town records of Wągrowiec. Information on accidental finds of modern coin hoards in the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century has also been included, as well as supplemental data regarding the most recent coin mass finds in Wągrowiec.
Inscribed with an engraved name of Dorothy, princess of Courland and duchess of Żagań (1793–1862), a tankard from 1845 is stored at the National Museum in Warsaw. A total of 46 coins and medals selected specifically to present the history of House of Birons, that Dorothy descended from, adorn its sides. Only scanty reports remained about the family’s numismatic collection, gathered in the 18th and 19th century and partially included in such adorned vessels.
The article presents the medal of Anthony Ashley Cooper, 1st Earl of Shaftesbury. It was coined in 1681 on the occasion of Shaftesbury’s acquittal and release from prison after he had been accused of high treason. The present work illustrates the political background behind the coinage of the medal offering an insight into the intricacies of the English exclusion crisis at the time of the Stuarts’ rule. Moreover, the article points out the representation of the medal in John Dryden’s poem and pays a particular attention to the adjective Polish, which the poet chose to ascribe to the discussed medal. The article is an attempt to explain the relation between Shaftesbury’s medal and its reference to Poland suggested in the poem.
Medalets and small crosses have drawn the attention of the material culture historians for many years . So far none of the publications on this subject have managed to exhaust the topic, since massive amounts of such artefacts are being continuously found not only by archaeologists on their excavation sites, but also by detectorists. As the basis for this study, a private collection of medalets with an image of Virgin Mary has been chosen. All the items are either documented with an exact findspot, or depict a specific Marian shrine in Warmia – including the church in Święta Lipka, situated a few hundred meters from Warmia border, in Masuria.
Both works are model studies of numismatic material recovered in Barbaricum mostly recorded within ploughsoil. The authors points to the new possibilities of interpretation and research potential afforded by this often undervalued material, even regarded as useless by some. A monograph by H. Horsnæs may be recognised as a model, mainly because of her analysis of metal detector finds which takes into account their archaeological context sensu largo. It may also be viewed as a vital starting point for the discussion about representativeness, in particular the potential for making comparisons with finds from the areas where there is almost no record of amateur detector finds or only a very limited one. The main shortcoming of M.H. Bjerg work is that it was published seven years after its manuscript was submitted. Both studies under review are worth reading, especially because of the unprecedented care taken in them over the archaeological context of the coin finds and the presentation of new methods of study and intepretation. I would recommend them especially to all those archaeologists who deny research value of the finds obtained by amateurs using metal detectors.
The review covers the methodology problems of numismatic research, especially statistic methods, applied in the monograph Evolution of the Currencies: the Black Sea region and the Balkans in the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, that resulted from a continuous scientific venture, methodological approaches creation and development. A detailed inspection of the work as a whole, and of the part devoted to methodological approach suggested by the author in particular, testifies to the research being done on the formulae and statistical basis that is an innovative approach in historical science and a revolutionary one – in Russian numismatics. A. Ponomaryov applied Sturges’ rule to solve his scientific problems. This is quite doubtful as Sturges’ rule is not considered valid in modern statistics. A. Ponomaryov’s off-base usage of other statistic laws disputes the obtained results which remain hypothetical without a proper argumentation. Yet Andrey Ponomaryov’s book constitutes an interesting research. The researcher’s indisputable merit is his attempt to level up numismatic researches with the help of other sciences methodology.
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