Lenkijos karaliaus ir Lietuvos Didžiojo kunigaikščio Jogailos portretinės monetos

Abstract

The article describes the portrait coins of Jogaila, the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, minted in Vilnius c. 1386-1387. Until recently, only twenty three units of coinage featuring the monarch's portrait on one side and a lion with a decorative cord of Tatar design on the other have been known. The article aims to describe seven new portrait coins found in 2002-2004. These finds allow to confirm that the coins belonged to Jogaila, the Grand Duke of Lithuania; they also allow to fully identify the legend, depicted on the obverse side of the coins. The legend reads MAGNA REG IHA (King Jogaila the Great). In addition, the average weight of the coins, which was supposed to be about 0.8 grams, was specified. The newly found coins showed many identical or overlapping die images what allows to conclude that in coin minting the bottom die used to contain a portrait while the upper die would feature a lion and a cord. The images of a lion and of a Tatar cord on the reverse side of the coins imply Jogaila's claims to all Russian principalities, including those subjugated by the Holden Horde. The use of these images can be viewed as a proclamation dedicated to the Grand Duke of Moscovy and the Khan of the Golden Horde. In terms of design and decoration Jogaila's portrait coins matched the coinage of other European kingdoms of those times. Yet the specific minting technology using silver strips (characteristic of eastern countries) instead of coin planchets as well as coin images have earned these coins a special place in the history of numismatics. The coins represent a merge of occidental and oriental traditions.