DOI issue:
Artykuły/Articles
DOI article:Dymowski, Arkadiusz: The Problem of the Presence of Barbarian Imitations of Roman Imperial Denarii in the Lands of Present-Day Poland. An Attempt at a Balance
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57341#0155
THE PROBLEM OF THE PRESENCE OF BARBARIAN IMITATIONS...
is needed regarding the use, within the lands of present-day Germany, of imitative
denarii of the type under discussion here; there is also the question as to the location
of the center or centers of their production. For the denarii discovered in Sarbinowo,
at the present moment we have not been able to tie the dies with any other coins of
a known provenance.12
No doubt the largest category of barbarian imitations of denarii that appear in
Poland consist of coins that are probably or certainly modeled after imperial issues
from the 1st and 2nd (and 3rd?) centuries - in particular, the coins of emperors from
the Nerva-Antonine dynasty (the years 96-192). In the finds from the area of interest
to us here, 46 (or 47)13 imitative denarii of this kind (including at least 2 coins
modeled after coins of emperors of the Flavian dynasty) have been noted (Cat. nos.
1-36 and 39-48), including one coin that cannot for certain be said to have a Polish
provenance. To this number we can add seven coins - also found in Poland - from
certain irregular issues. With regard to these coins, we do not have sufficiently strong
evidence to say with a great deal of probability that they are barbarian imitations;
on the other hand, it cannot be excluded that this may be the case (Cat. nos. 49-55).
In comparing the number of these coins to other regions of the Barbaricum, I will
make use of the visual data - now somewhat less up-to-date - that I have already
exploited in a different publication.14 Denarii imitations of the emperors from
the Nerva-Antonine dynasty have been noted in finds from Denmark (especially
from Bornholm),15 eastern Germany,16 Belarus,17 and Bohemia.18 However, if we do
not count the lands of present-day Poland, it is only in four regions of the Barbaricum
that no fewer than 40 imitative denarii have been found: in northwestern Germany
(in the hoards from Lashorst19 and Laatzen20 - which together had 34 imitations21 -
and no fewer than 13 coins from other finds from the lands of Lower Saxony and
12 A coin with an unknown provenance - one very similar to one of the denarii found in Sarbinowo
(though it was almost certainly struck with different dies for the obverse and the reverse) - was sold in 2013,
in auction no. 213 at the German auction house Gomy & Mosch, item 2083 (https://www.numisbids.eom/n.
php?p=lot&sid=548&lot=2083 (accessed on November 26, 2018); DYMOWSKI 2016: 77.
13 In her monograph Aleksandra Krzyżanowska attributed 5 imitative denarii to the Nowy Drzewicz hoard.
It is not completely certain if one of these coins (KRZYŻANOWSKA 1976: 84; no. 9) belonged to this hoard.
14 DYMOWSKI 2019: 186-187.
15 HORSN3ES 2010: 135-138; EADEM 2013: 55-56. According to information provided by Dr. Helle
Horsnaes, the number of imitative denarii found in the lands of present-day Denmark is currently estimated to be
about 30 coins, which about half were found in Bornholm.
16 For example, two denarii found in Raguth in Mecklenburg, kept in the collections of the Archäologisches
Landesmuseum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Inv. No. 2015/205.33 and 2017/518.4).
17 SIDAROVICH 2017: 129-135.
18 MILITKY 2013: 64.
19 FMRD VI 6089, 6089a.
20 FMRD VII 4033.
21 STRIBRNY 2003: 37 -45.
153
is needed regarding the use, within the lands of present-day Germany, of imitative
denarii of the type under discussion here; there is also the question as to the location
of the center or centers of their production. For the denarii discovered in Sarbinowo,
at the present moment we have not been able to tie the dies with any other coins of
a known provenance.12
No doubt the largest category of barbarian imitations of denarii that appear in
Poland consist of coins that are probably or certainly modeled after imperial issues
from the 1st and 2nd (and 3rd?) centuries - in particular, the coins of emperors from
the Nerva-Antonine dynasty (the years 96-192). In the finds from the area of interest
to us here, 46 (or 47)13 imitative denarii of this kind (including at least 2 coins
modeled after coins of emperors of the Flavian dynasty) have been noted (Cat. nos.
1-36 and 39-48), including one coin that cannot for certain be said to have a Polish
provenance. To this number we can add seven coins - also found in Poland - from
certain irregular issues. With regard to these coins, we do not have sufficiently strong
evidence to say with a great deal of probability that they are barbarian imitations;
on the other hand, it cannot be excluded that this may be the case (Cat. nos. 49-55).
In comparing the number of these coins to other regions of the Barbaricum, I will
make use of the visual data - now somewhat less up-to-date - that I have already
exploited in a different publication.14 Denarii imitations of the emperors from
the Nerva-Antonine dynasty have been noted in finds from Denmark (especially
from Bornholm),15 eastern Germany,16 Belarus,17 and Bohemia.18 However, if we do
not count the lands of present-day Poland, it is only in four regions of the Barbaricum
that no fewer than 40 imitative denarii have been found: in northwestern Germany
(in the hoards from Lashorst19 and Laatzen20 - which together had 34 imitations21 -
and no fewer than 13 coins from other finds from the lands of Lower Saxony and
12 A coin with an unknown provenance - one very similar to one of the denarii found in Sarbinowo
(though it was almost certainly struck with different dies for the obverse and the reverse) - was sold in 2013,
in auction no. 213 at the German auction house Gomy & Mosch, item 2083 (https://www.numisbids.eom/n.
php?p=lot&sid=548&lot=2083 (accessed on November 26, 2018); DYMOWSKI 2016: 77.
13 In her monograph Aleksandra Krzyżanowska attributed 5 imitative denarii to the Nowy Drzewicz hoard.
It is not completely certain if one of these coins (KRZYŻANOWSKA 1976: 84; no. 9) belonged to this hoard.
14 DYMOWSKI 2019: 186-187.
15 HORSN3ES 2010: 135-138; EADEM 2013: 55-56. According to information provided by Dr. Helle
Horsnaes, the number of imitative denarii found in the lands of present-day Denmark is currently estimated to be
about 30 coins, which about half were found in Bornholm.
16 For example, two denarii found in Raguth in Mecklenburg, kept in the collections of the Archäologisches
Landesmuseum Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (Inv. No. 2015/205.33 and 2017/518.4).
17 SIDAROVICH 2017: 129-135.
18 MILITKY 2013: 64.
19 FMRD VI 6089, 6089a.
20 FMRD VII 4033.
21 STRIBRNY 2003: 37 -45.
153