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Minutes of the 1020th Meeting

The 1020th meeting of the Chicago Coin Club was unofficially called to order when club member Richard Hamilton led those in attendance at Marcello’s Restaurant in an invocation prior to dinner. All the guests for the evening were then introduced.

Following a scrumptious dinner, immediate past president Carl Wolf, informed us about upcoming programs and events. Carl then introduced the evenings featured speaker, Dr. Susan Solway.

Dr. Solway, Professor of Art History, DePaul University presented an interesting and enthusiastic program Roman Coins Beyond Rome: Numismatic Passages into Medieval Art and Material Culture. After which Dr. Solway was given an A.N.A. Educational Certificate and the C.C.C. Featured Speakers Medal.

The business portion of the meeting began when President Mark Wieclaw announced that one of the guests, Glen DeCosta, wished to become a member of the club and thus we had a First Reading for membership.

Mark then acknowledged that the club had added $928.00 to the treasury from the November auction thanks to hard work of Jeff Rosinia (auctioneer), Carl Wolf (book keeper), and Steve Zitowsky (treasurer).

Also recognized were several club members that have recently authored books or that regularly pen columns in numismatic publications. Those member include Alexander Basok, Thomas K. DeLorey, Donald Dool, Robert Leonard, Mike Metras, Dr. Saul Needleman, and Donn Pearlman.

Second Vice President Jeff Rosinia then presented the Cabeen Awards to the top exhibitors of 2003. They were:
Gold Medal – Robert Weinstein
Silver Medal – Mark Wieclaw
Honorable Mention – Robert Leonard and Carl Wolf

Carl Wolf closed the business portion with his reminder about the magnifiers that the club was offering at $8.00 each.

The meeting was adjourned at 9:02.

Respectfully reported
Mark Wieclaw
Acting Secretary

Speaker's Wor[l]d
Roman Coins Beyond Rome: Numismatic Passages into Medieval Art and Material Culture

Presented by Dr. Susan Solway to our December 10, 2003 banquet meeting.

Coins were the most available of ancient artifacts during medieval times. Their reuse in medieval jewelry and decorations provides us, in the modern day, with an interesting area for interdisciplinary studies. It was during her training as an art historian at Northwestern, where her mentor was a numismatist who used Roman coins in his work, that Dr. Solway was introduced to the interdisciplinary approach which she uses to this day.

Reused coins are not met with universal approval. Coins placed in fancy borders and used as jewelry are dismissed by numismatists as damaged, and are dismissed by archaeologists as only coins. Using slides in her program, Dr. Solway shared with us her appreciation for these artifacts.

The slides showed many instances of reuse. In some, the original coin was reused within a larger article. In others, design elements commonly found on varied coins were used in medals, coins, and larger items.

A piece could be as simple as some third century pendants made by a Germanic tribe; each included a single Roman gold coin. A more complicated piece used five gold coins in a bracelet. The ancient gold coins were readily available for use; even then, uncovered hoards kept providing new material. That their reuse in jewelry must have been not that unusual can be inferred from an early bust, now in the Louvre, which clearly shows coins used in a necklace.

One Justinian solidus appeared in a seventh century fibula (brooch), and another was used in a later foot reliquary of Saint Andrew. (A reliquary contained a relic of a Saint; it was the approximate size of the relic, and it usually included a carving of the relic. This foot reliquary contains the foot of Saint Andrew.) As expected, such an important item would not be plain; the design work could include gems, coins, and metal work.

Coins were not the only ancient artifacts to be reused. Some Christian objects incorporated ancient gems carved with pagan symbolism, and a tenth century cross even includes Augustus in a cameo setting. The collections at Dumbarton Oaks and the Louvre contain beautiful examples of such items.

Barbaric imitations also were incorporated into jewelry, with the horse and rider a favored designed. And when an original, or its imitation, was not available, something new would be created in the Roman style; a 14th century book with a different emperor medal centered along each edge was shown, with each medal borrowing legends and styles from the Roman.

Due to its wide use in medieval Europe, it is not surprising that most coins and medals used latin legends; but it is surprising to see borrowed Roman design elements. Charlemagne wears drapery on a piece with Roman legends proclaiming IMP AUG.

A number of Roman coins bore the personification of virtues (Concordia, Pietas, Felicitas, and others) on their reverses. A fourth century medal of the Madonna of mercy borrows heavily from those Roman coins; the classic image, holding open a drapery/cloak so as to encompass the (smaller) supplicants, helped Dr. Solway make her point.

A number of slides illustrated the generally accepted adaptation of the classical motif of Nike into an angel. Among the common medieval visualizations of Jesus are the good shepherd, teacher, enthroned emperor, and sun god; many of those designs also reflected Roman themes.

Medieval Europe never lost its taste for Roman artifacts and that classical tradition. Their copying of earlier objects was an attempt to link themselves and their world with the power, authority, and culture of the past.

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