Moneta jako przedmiot zabiegów magicznych w świetle źródeł etnograficznych z obszaru Polski

• Authors: Łukasz Miechowicz

Title variants

EN

Coins as elements of magic in the light of ethnographic sources from the area of Poland

Abstracts

EN

Concepts pertaining to the supernatural, magic and religious rites, time and again determined certain behaviours and activities thus constituting an inseparable part of the daily life of medieval people and in modern times. Similarly also the artefacts of material culture gradually became objects of superstitions and magic practice. This phenomenon is plain to see in the case of coins. Two groups of beliefs may be specified: coins carry a certain magic message meant to touch off definite results in the physical world, or they themselves are the objects of sorcery and spells. The phenomenon of coins being deposited in graves, laid under buildings as corner stone offerings, buried in the fields to yield better crops, etc., might be inter alia classified as examples of the first case. In the latter case the coins themselves undergo certain practices meant to bestow apotropaic properties upon them, or to diminish the possible harmful influence. This might be by means of tossing, pressing with a hand, putting them in a certain place in the case of trading bids, etc. This includes also such practices that left upon them traces recognisable by researchers: piercing, incising, marking, bending. Both belief in apotropaic power and the power harmful to the owner are connected with the foregoing practice. The latter group of practices is subject to a thorough analysis in this text. Information on the issue is provided chiefly by ethnographic sources, to a lesser extent - archaeological and historical materials. Of considerable interest are the intentional incisions to be found upon coins and early medieval silver, the so called graffiti, nicks and pecks, along with traces of bending. The latter are to be seen on late medieval and modern coins. Usually they are interpreted as traces of practices meant to detect possible counterfeits. Ethnographic sources and - to a lesser extent - historical ones point out possibly different origins of those marks, i.e. magic measures. West European late medieval and modern written sources testify appropriately marked or bent coins being worn as lucky charms protecting against the so called evil eye. Analogous information is included in the 19th century ethnographic records from Poland. According to common beliefs, a coin having been pierced or bent added to its apotropaic value. Traces of practice connected with folk medicine are also to be found upon coins. Quite often the material from which coins had been struck was of significant importance in such measures. Similarly common was the belief in the harmful power of money, e.g. the so called inclusae, enchanted money, which - once having been spent - would always return to the owner together with the property of the person it had been passed to. The origin of this belief, extensively testified in ethnographic sources, dates much further back than the 10th century, which is testified in west European and Arab sources. The protecting measures against such enchanted coins known from ethnography suggest that incising might have been one of them. This is also confirmed by the so called trading magic, i.e. a number of rites observed while concluding commercial bids, meant to prevent property being lost by the buyer or seller. According to the belief money could have made the remaining property "follow" it. Thus this invisible bond had to be symbolically cut. Possibly the incisions and markings upon early medieval silver are of a similar origin.

• Publisher: Polska Akademia Nauk
• Journal: Wiadomości Numizmatyczne
• Year: 2006
• Volume: 50
• Issue: 2(182)
• Pages: 147-158

Dates

published

2006

Contributors

author

Łukasz Miechowicz

Identifiers

Biblioteka Nauki

16492762