Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (7.2012)

RADOSŁAW GAZINSKI, GENOWEFA HOROSZKO

Unfortunately, there are no written sources at our disposal, while the very few
surviving accounts contain no records as to what coinage was minted at that time.26
Rich symbolism of the Griffin that was formed in the Middle Ages decided
on it being attractive as a symbol of authority. In the antiąuity the Griffin being
a fabulous creature, half a lion and half an eagle, was considered the keeper of se-
crets and a the guardian of treasures. It was attributed with the strength of several
men as well as dexterity and sometimes deceit and falsehood. The Griffin came
from the world of antiąuity to the European heraldry in the times of the Crusades.
It symbolized courage, rapacity, cunning and perseverance as well as alertness. In
the ecclesiastical heraldry it represented two natures of Christ - manly and godly
one. Being an eagle it belonged to the skies, while as a lion it belonged to the Earth.
It is not ąuite elear in what circumstances the Pomeranian dynasty adopted
the image of the Griffin as their symbol. Perhaps the ąualities of the creature that
suited the mediaeval knights appealed to the imagination of Pomerania rulers. In
any ratę the process of adapting the Griffin as the dynasty coat of arms started in
the end of 12th century and still lasted in the first decades of the 13th century.
The Griffin coat of arms, as the West-Pomeranian dynastie emblem, is con-
nected with the origin and use of the ducal seals. The most cohesive, and chron-
ologically earliest, are the so-called standing and eąuestrian seals, representing
a figurę of an armed knight (duke), standing or mounted on a riding horse. They
appeared in West Pomerania at the end of the 12th century and ceased to be used
around the mid-14th century.27 According to the extant records, there is no doubt
that the Griffin was first used as a seal image by Casimir II, Duke of Demmin, ca.
1193 (some scholars are of the opinion that the document to which the seal in ques-
tion was attached should be dated to 1212).28 The seal of Casimir II, unfortunately
now lost, represented a standing figurę of the duke, holding a sword in his right
hand and a shield in his left hand. The shield had borne the first (known) image of
the Griffin.29 Bogislaw II, the elder brother of Casimir II, was known to have used
an “eąuestrian” seal, with the shield bearing no emblem, at that time. Bogislaw II
began to use his new eąuestrian seal in the 1220s, with the knighfs (duke’s) shield
depicting an animal which some scholars have identified with the Griffin. The

26 The sole exception being some drawings of the coins whose issue had been planned, but never realized,
by Duke Francis I in 1608.
27 Among the ducal seals of Pomerania, the oldest two, i.e., the standing seal of the Duke of Demmin
Casimir I and the eąuestrian seal of his brother Bogislaw I, Duke of Usedom-Stettin, were introduced ca. 1170,
see BOBOWSKI, Dawne.... pp. 69-71. The last recorded Pomeranian eąuestrian seal, that of Duke Bogislaw X,
dates from the late 15th century.
2S PUB, NF, Bd. 1, 126.
29 BOBOWSKI, Dawne..., p. 72.