DOI article:
Dymowski, Arkadiusz: Pseudo-ancient pseudo-coins from Gdańsk: remarks in the margins of the catalog of finds of ancient coins in medieval and modern contexts in Poland
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49247#0131
To-xm\QTAE NUMISMATICAE
ZAPISKI OIZMÄTOE
ARKADIUSZ DYMOWSKI
University of Warsaw
Pseudo-Ancient Pseudo-Coins from Gdańsk.
Remarks in the Margins of the Catalog of Finds
of Ancient Coins in Medieval and Modem
Contexts in Poland
ABSTRACT: For the city of Gdańsk, we have a very large source database that
includes thousands of finds of coins and coin-like objects. This database includes
coin-like objects modeled on ancient Roman or Greek coins. These are as follows: an
alleged as of Nero, found at Łagiewniki Street in 2006 together with 47 other coins
and coin-like objects from the late medieval and early modem periods; a similar
object found without any context, also in 2006, in Kiełpino Górne, now a suburb
of Gdańsk; a lead artifact of indeterminate use modeled on a Greek stater from
Velia; and what would appear to be a livery button showing a helmeted Athena or
Minerva looking left. The two latter artifacts were found at two different, unspecified
locations in Gdańsk before 2009. All of these examples show that great care needs to
be exercised when it comes to describing objects resembling ancient coins found in
early modern contexts or ones that are suspected of being associated with the early
modern period. At least since the Renaissance, following on a wave of interest in
antiquity, there appeared a great number of coin-like objects modeled on Greek or
Roman coins. We can only guess at the use to which some of these were put. While
it is easy to identify as reproductions objects made of lead or some other material
that was not used when ancient coins were stmek as part of regular issues, it is
much more difficult to identify a piece as having been made in the early modern
era when it is reminiscent of an ancient coin in terms of the material used, the size
of the coin, and the images depicted on it.
KEY WORDS: coin finds, coin-like objects, modern period, Roman coins,
Greek coins
127
ZAPISKI OIZMÄTOE
ARKADIUSZ DYMOWSKI
University of Warsaw
Pseudo-Ancient Pseudo-Coins from Gdańsk.
Remarks in the Margins of the Catalog of Finds
of Ancient Coins in Medieval and Modem
Contexts in Poland
ABSTRACT: For the city of Gdańsk, we have a very large source database that
includes thousands of finds of coins and coin-like objects. This database includes
coin-like objects modeled on ancient Roman or Greek coins. These are as follows: an
alleged as of Nero, found at Łagiewniki Street in 2006 together with 47 other coins
and coin-like objects from the late medieval and early modem periods; a similar
object found without any context, also in 2006, in Kiełpino Górne, now a suburb
of Gdańsk; a lead artifact of indeterminate use modeled on a Greek stater from
Velia; and what would appear to be a livery button showing a helmeted Athena or
Minerva looking left. The two latter artifacts were found at two different, unspecified
locations in Gdańsk before 2009. All of these examples show that great care needs to
be exercised when it comes to describing objects resembling ancient coins found in
early modern contexts or ones that are suspected of being associated with the early
modern period. At least since the Renaissance, following on a wave of interest in
antiquity, there appeared a great number of coin-like objects modeled on Greek or
Roman coins. We can only guess at the use to which some of these were put. While
it is easy to identify as reproductions objects made of lead or some other material
that was not used when ancient coins were stmek as part of regular issues, it is
much more difficult to identify a piece as having been made in the early modern
era when it is reminiscent of an ancient coin in terms of the material used, the size
of the coin, and the images depicted on it.
KEY WORDS: coin finds, coin-like objects, modern period, Roman coins,
Greek coins
127