W. C a r e w H a z l i t t Coinage of the European Continent

35 2 The Coins of Europe
IV.
POLAND
The Poles, like the Russians, probably employed skins
in commerce as media of exchange. But in some instances
at least, so far as we know, they were accustomed to use only
the scalp of the animal (pelliculum de capitibus). The metallic
currency begins with the tenth century, and continues in the
form of esterlings or denarii of good silver, of which occasional
trouvailles occur, down to the period of the union of Poland
and Livonia under the house of Jagellon. The strong
Jewish and Arab elements in the early political and social
constitution of Eastern Europe account for the presence
of Hebrew and Arabic inscriptions on certain bracteates
and other pieces belonging to this region, and presumably
struck or made current for the convenience and use of early
Oriental traders frequenting the towns and the periodical
fairs. They appear to be of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries, and one bears on the opposite sides the names of
a caliph of Bagdad and of one of the German emperors
called Henry probably Henry VI. This circumstance
encourages the suspicion that it was a species of conventionmoney.
No appreciable progress
is discernible in the coinage
prior to the reign of Sigismund I. (i 5O6-48), 1 when the fabric
and character underwent an abrupt reform, and the power
and prosperity of the country, owing to a more stable government
and the growth of the internal and Baltic commerce,
began to reflect themselves in a monetary series, which
reached its climax under Sigismund III. (1588-1632), but
betrayed no symptoms of decline till the close of the seventeenth
century and the death of John III., Sobieski (1697).
The strength of the entire Polish currency centres round
Sigismund III., however, whose moneyers at Riga and
Dantzic, throughout the earlier portion of his protracted
1
The name of John of Luxemburgh, King of Bohemia (1309-46), does not
occur in the lists of the sovereigns of Poland, yet on his coinage he claims to be
Rex. Boe. Et. Pol.