A very little-known episode in the history of Polish minting.
To quote excerpts:
"A medieval mint from Stary Drawsko (Drahim), dating to the 14th/15th century, was discovered during many years of work.... archaeologists on an early medieval settlement and a medieval castle founded, on it. As a mint minting counterfeit coins, it is the only one of very few discoveries of its kind in Poland....
Finished coin specimens, collected at the site of the mint workshop.... give us a very clear view of the wide assortment of coin grades produced here characteristic of the various legal mints of the 14th and 15th centuries.... the denarii of Ladislaus Varnañczyk.... the crown denarii of Casimir Jagiellon.... Świdnica brakteats from around 1420 with an image of a boar's head.... Bishop's denarii from Kolobrzeg.... Stargard denarii... Dyminsk denarii... [the list is still very long, at over a page; footnote GNDM].
The minting of counterfeit coins, releasing them into circulation, and thus the activities of mint counterfeiting workshops sometimes took place with the complicity of local princes or, in relation to other mints, of highly placed individuals. This kind of patronage protected the mint's counterfeiting activities, and at the same time allowed the producers of counterfeit coins, if detected, to avoid the threatened death penalty.... "
Piece in an individual cloth binding, with a beautiful ex-libris by Anatoly Gupeniec with a medieval theme. The exlibris made with a noble technique, most likely a copperplate print.
The whole preserved in very good condition.
Format 21 x 15.5 cm, 34 pages. edition 1973.
