The Fbg 70 Silesian bracteate bears an unusual depiction that – in the authors’ opinion – has not yet been satisfactorily explained. They thereby present here a completely new interpretation of this imagery, tracing it back to, on one hand, the traditions of earlier Silesian issues and on the other to the earliest, openwork pilgrim badges from the Amiens sanctuary, which depict the reliquary of the head of St. John the Baptist. They also suggest that some features of this depiction might be inspired directly by the said reliquary without the pilgrim badges as an intermediary. The Fbg 70 bracteate would therefore constitute only the second known example of a Polish coin depicting a reliquary – the first being the type 1 deniers of Bolesław IV the Curly. The authors suggest that the Amiens reliquary might also be depicted on other Silesian coins, for example on the Fbg 74 bracteate.

ABSTRACT:

The purpose of this article is to determine the origins of the enigmatic image appearing on a Silesian bracteate of the Rataje type (Fbg 70). The image has recently been interpreted as radiating circles of light and its symbols associated with St John the Baptist, whose figure appears on Silesian coins relatively often. While analysing the numismatic material, the author focuses on two types of coins which may have served as the model for the Silesian bracteate: half-bracteate from Hedeby, issued in all probability during the reign of Harald Bluetooth (958–987) and the Celtic stater, struck in Lesser Poland (or in Silesia) in the first third of the 1st century BC.

SUMMARY:

One Silesian bracteate from the Rataje group (the issue from 1220–1240) features an image which should be interpreted as radiating circles of light (fig. 1). A closer analysis allows the conclusion that such an interpretation might be based on the Prologue to John’s Gospel, where John the Baptist is associated with the symbolism of light (J 1, 4–9). In the text, Christ’s predecessor is presented as the witness to the Light, heralding the arrival of the Saviour.

While looking for the model, the creator of the die of the Rataje bracteate may have relied on, one might arrive at two alternative solutions. The first one may be related to the half-bracteates struck in Hedeby, associated with the first half of the 10th century and sometimes with the times of Harald Bluetooth’s rule (958–987) (fig. 3), which were, in turn, modelled on Charles the Great’s pennies, struck in Dorestad approximately until the year 790 (fig. 2). Younger half-bracteates from Hedeby, coined in the second half of the 10th century appear both in Pomeranian (such as Gralewo II, Rybice or Świnoujście–Przytór) and Silesian finds (Bystrzyca, Gębice, Kotowice II and Radzików II). Hence, it is possible that they served as the model for the Silesian bracteate in the era of advanced renewal, necessitating frequent changes in the appearance of the dies.

The other solution would identify Celtic staters of the Cracow type as the model for the Rataje bracteate. The coins minted in Lesser Poland from around 100 BC to around 30 AD were described by Marcin Rudnicki in 2012. On some specimens, classified by the scholar as group I, representing “the earliest, prototype variants of the Cracow type” and dated by him to the period from around 100 to around 70 BC, the elements of the die form a composition significantly similar to the image on the Rataje bracteate. Although the Cracow type staters have not been recorded in Silesia, there is no doubt that the coins reached the region, a fact confirmed by their occurrence in Central Poland as well as in Bohemia, Slovakia and as far as in the Zagreb area.

Using the Celtic stater as the iconographic model for the Silesian bracteate might have been connected with the so-called “heads” or “St John pennies”. The name, appearing in sources from 1445 onwards, although certainly used in Poland much earlier, was given to Roman coins, found mainly in Polish lands, whose obverse featured the emperor’s head (identified with the severed head of John the Baptist). It is possible that the notion of “St John’s pennies” designated also other ancient coins. This fact, as well as original iconography, may have influenced the use of the transformed motif from the Celtic coin obverse on the die of the Silesian bracteate. Owing to the rays, the composition may have been associated with the symbolism of light, closely connected with the patron of Silesia and emphasised by the liturgy at the time.