Monety rzymskie w zbiorach XIX-wiecznych gimnazjów Górnego Śląska

• Authors: Dariusz Chojecki

Title variants

EN

Roman coins in the collections of the 19th century secondary higher schools in Upper Silesia

Abstracts

EN

At the beginning of the 19th century in Upper Silesia there was no museum yet. Higher secondary schools were the most appropriate public places to deposit the relics of material culture, including Roman coins; lecturers would have used coins as aids in their work with students. This article discusses the collections of Roman coins in three secondary higher schools in Upper Silesia: in Cieszyn (Teschen), Głubczyce (Leobschutz) and Racibórz (Ratibor). The collection of the higher secondary in Cieszyn is the oldest one, its beginnings dating back to the second half of the 18th century and connected with a Jesuit, Father Leopold Szersznik, who opened a library and museum in the Cieszyn secondary higher school. It housed also Roman coins. The collection grew thanks to the work of successive custodians. In the years 1815-31 Albin Heinrich catalogued the collection which at that time comprised at least 97 Roman coins. His successors Carl Schwarz and Josef Chris added new coins to the collection. The 1871 inventory includes 786 coins. Despite such a large number of collected coins it is not possible to specify the finding places. A thorough analysis of the collection points out that it came into being by means of painstakingly selected purchases. Thus the coins had probably not been found in Silesia. Unfortunately we do not know which finds they came from. On the other hand we do know the provenience of a large part of about 150 Roman coins (denari and aurei) in the collection of the Głubczyce secondary higher. Almost all of them come from the collection of commissar Mader, who noted their finding places. Many of them can be associated with Nowa Cerekwia (Bieskau) and the neighbouring localities. Roman coins had been also collected since 1819 by the Royal-Evangelical Higher Secondary in Racibórz. Owing to the activity of its two headmasters, Carl Linge and Eduard Haenisch, 99 Roman coins found their way to the collection. In case of 32 of them it was possible to specify their finding places: the vicinity of Racibórz, Głubczyce and other localities in Upper Silesia. Comparing the way Roman coins were purchased by particular schools, one might notice that the Głubczyce Secondary Higher was given a donation by a private person in the form of 150 Roman coins. Thus the collection may be called commissar Mader's. The collections of Cieszyn and Racibórz came into being in a completely different way. This was the result of long and thorough collecting works of people connected with the schools in question. At present the Cieszyn collection is kept in the local museum. Those of Racibórz and Głubczyce do not exist any more.

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 1 (181)
• Pages: 159-171

Dates

published

2006

Contributors

author

Dariusz Chojecki

• Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Zawodowa w Raciborzu

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

16497393