DOI Artikel:
Suchodolski, Stanisław: Beware, the fraud!: On alleged finds of deniers with the legend GNEZDVN CIVITAS and other coins from the reign of Bolesław the brave
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21230#0304
the existence of three specimens belonging to this type. The first of
these, the best known, is none other than the Cracow specimen. It was
purchased sometime prior to March of 1857 in Wolfenbiittel in Lower
Saxony (and not in Bavaria, as the literaturę has previously unanimously
stated, following Stronczyński) by Józef Bolesław Krasicki, the owner of
the Karsewo estate near Gniezno. This particular denier came from a hoard
discovered between Toruń and Grudziądz or Bydgoszcz, i.e. most likely
in Rychnowo, in the former county of Wąbrzeźno. Beforel879 it was in
Lubostroń, in the collection of Count Leon Skórzewski, who in 1890
donated it to Czapski (Fig. I).2
The second specimen of a Gnezdun civitas denier is also supposed to
have come from the Rychnowo hoard. It was published in 1862 by Ber-
nard Kóhne, using an inprint Abdruck and information obtained from
Friedrich Vossberg (Fig. 2). At that time the coin was said to have be-
longed to an otherwise unidentified "Bochenek" from Cracow3. What
happened to this coin afterwards remains a total mystery, which is in-
deed quite odd, given the flourishing of coin collecting in Cracow dur-
ing the latter half of the 19th century, and also the great interest shown
in this coin by Cracow scholars.
A comparison of Kóhne's drawing with a photograph of the original
specimen from the National Museum reveals certain similarities, which
had already led Marian Gumowski to the conclusion that both speci-
mens were struck with the same pair of dies.4 There are certain details,
however (e.g. larger margin beyond the outer rim on the right side of
the obverse and the reverse, obscured legibility at the beginning of the
letter S on the obverse), which have suggested the idea that in reality we
2 Z. Zakrzewski, „Kilka słów o denarze GNEZDUN CP7ITAS", WN II (1957), 1-5. [Editors
note: E. H. Czapski noted the sum of 76 rubles on the page of the manuscript catalogue
dealing with this denier.] Regarding J. B. Krasicki, who at the moment he purchased this
coin was not quite 23 years old, cf. T. Żychliński, Złota księga szlachty polskiej, Rocznik XX
(Poznań 1898), pp. 79-81.
3 B. Kóhne, „Zurpolnischen Miinzkunde", Berliner Blatter fur Miinz-, Siegel- und Wap-
penkunde I (1863), p. 7, Taf. 1.3. This Bochenek must be identified with the banker Jan
Nepomucen, cf. A. Ryszard, Album numizmatyków polskich (manuscript in the National Mu-
seum in Cracow, MNK 934), p. 36; M. Gumowski Corpus Nummorum Poloniae I (Cracow
1939), p. 25 (hereinafter cited as CAP); cf. M. Friedberg and L. Strojek, in Polski Słownik
Biograficzny II (Cracow 1936), pp. 169 f.
4 M. Gumowski, 1. c; so already A. Ryszard, l.c.
304
these, the best known, is none other than the Cracow specimen. It was
purchased sometime prior to March of 1857 in Wolfenbiittel in Lower
Saxony (and not in Bavaria, as the literaturę has previously unanimously
stated, following Stronczyński) by Józef Bolesław Krasicki, the owner of
the Karsewo estate near Gniezno. This particular denier came from a hoard
discovered between Toruń and Grudziądz or Bydgoszcz, i.e. most likely
in Rychnowo, in the former county of Wąbrzeźno. Beforel879 it was in
Lubostroń, in the collection of Count Leon Skórzewski, who in 1890
donated it to Czapski (Fig. I).2
The second specimen of a Gnezdun civitas denier is also supposed to
have come from the Rychnowo hoard. It was published in 1862 by Ber-
nard Kóhne, using an inprint Abdruck and information obtained from
Friedrich Vossberg (Fig. 2). At that time the coin was said to have be-
longed to an otherwise unidentified "Bochenek" from Cracow3. What
happened to this coin afterwards remains a total mystery, which is in-
deed quite odd, given the flourishing of coin collecting in Cracow dur-
ing the latter half of the 19th century, and also the great interest shown
in this coin by Cracow scholars.
A comparison of Kóhne's drawing with a photograph of the original
specimen from the National Museum reveals certain similarities, which
had already led Marian Gumowski to the conclusion that both speci-
mens were struck with the same pair of dies.4 There are certain details,
however (e.g. larger margin beyond the outer rim on the right side of
the obverse and the reverse, obscured legibility at the beginning of the
letter S on the obverse), which have suggested the idea that in reality we
2 Z. Zakrzewski, „Kilka słów o denarze GNEZDUN CP7ITAS", WN II (1957), 1-5. [Editors
note: E. H. Czapski noted the sum of 76 rubles on the page of the manuscript catalogue
dealing with this denier.] Regarding J. B. Krasicki, who at the moment he purchased this
coin was not quite 23 years old, cf. T. Żychliński, Złota księga szlachty polskiej, Rocznik XX
(Poznań 1898), pp. 79-81.
3 B. Kóhne, „Zurpolnischen Miinzkunde", Berliner Blatter fur Miinz-, Siegel- und Wap-
penkunde I (1863), p. 7, Taf. 1.3. This Bochenek must be identified with the banker Jan
Nepomucen, cf. A. Ryszard, Album numizmatyków polskich (manuscript in the National Mu-
seum in Cracow, MNK 934), p. 36; M. Gumowski Corpus Nummorum Poloniae I (Cracow
1939), p. 25 (hereinafter cited as CAP); cf. M. Friedberg and L. Strojek, in Polski Słownik
Biograficzny II (Cracow 1936), pp. 169 f.
4 M. Gumowski, 1. c; so already A. Ryszard, l.c.
304