Notae Numismaticae - Zapiski Numizmatyczne (14.2019)

REMARKS ON CHANGES IN THE ICONOGRAPHY...

and that of Royal Prussia. What would seem to be the most interesting is the origin
of the set of five coats of arms on szóstaks. Two of these coats of arms show coats of
arms of houses: one, the coat of arms of the Habsburgs; the other, the Pahonia; and
below an Eagle placed in the center is the Ruthenian Lion and the coat of arms of
Royal Prussia. This composition was copied almost exactly from the opposite side
of the medal attributed earlier to Hans Schwarz,21 which is sometimes described as
having been struck on the occasion of the king’s sixtieth birthday.22 The composition,
however, has one exception - instead of the coat of arms of Royal Prussia, what
we see on the medal is the coat of arms of the already non-existent Teutonic Order.
Some of the first thalers must have served as an inspiration for the medalist - these
would have been the guldengroschen of Maximilian I, struck in the Hall Mint in
Tyrol.23 The legend on the szóstaks - DEVS IN VIRTVTE TVA LETABITVR
REX (O Lord, the king rejoices in Your strength) - is drawn from Psalm 20 in
the Vulgate. The Psalms were closely tied to the ceremony of the coronation, but
Psalm 20 (Vulgate) was intoned during the coronation of Charlemagne (768-814),
which added to the symbolism of power on the szóstaks of Sigismund I.24

hollowing the last issue of the temarii of Vladislaus Jagiełło, the Two-Barred
Cross appeared on half-groschen - not, however, as the main symbol but as an image
under the crown. To this day, the attribution and chronology of half-groschen with
a Two-Barred Cross with the letters F or W under the crown has been the subject
of numerous hypotheses (a rare version of these coins exists in which there is only
a two-barred cross without any letters). In the literature there are two currents that
offer an explanation. The first assumes that the letters F and W indicate the minters
in various configurations. This is how the letters were interpreted by Gumowski25
(an F for Mikołaj Follisfessil or Mikołaj Falkinberg; a Two-Barred Cross for Andrzej
Czamysza; a W for Hanusz Wenke), Piekosiński26 (an F for Mikołaj Falkinberg;
a W for Hanusz Wenke), and, more recently, Pawlikowski27 (an F for Mikołaj
Falkinberg; a W for Hanusz Wenke). The other current says that the letters F and W

21 This is what Gumowski (1906: 60; 1917: 7, no. 5) says. At present, this attribution is not regarded as
accurate - there is no evidence that Schwarz created the medal. See KASTENHOLZ 2006: 365. See also ZACHER,
ŚNIEŻKO and ZAWADZKI 2019: 14-15.
22 MORKA2006: 318,329; PIECH 2003: 306.
23 MORKA 2006: 329,335.
24 Ibidem'. 330.
25 GUMOWSKI 1914: 273,279.
26 PIEKOSIŃSKI 1878: 70.
27 PAWLIKOWSKI 2018: 184,192.