This large,
intriguing
coin is the second in a new series tracing the ancient Roman "
Amber
Road" from the south shore of the Baltic Sea, in northern
Europe, all
the way to Roman Italy. Looking at this beauty, it immediately
strikes
one as different from most modern commemoratives:
•
It has an antiqued silver finish, underscoring the ancient
theme (form
follows function);
• The design is both intricate and
out-of-the-ordinary;
• Most obviously, there is a huge amber cabochon on
the obverse, in a deep, almost blood-red, hue!
As a friend
from Canada
exclaimed when he first laid eyes on the first in the series, "That's
one honkin'
big jewel there, eh?" Yes, yes it is - the largest amber cabochon
(rounded jewel) Poland has ever embedded on one of its coins. Please
read on for more information on amber, the amber road, and Gdansk
(Prussian Danzig).
This is the
second entry in the
ongoing
Amber
Route program. Each coin is minted by the
Mint of
Poland (the Warsaw Mint) and features a different
destination or stop on the famed Amber Road of ancient Rome:
1) Kaliningrad
(Königsburg), Russia
2) Gdansk (Danzig), Poland
3) Elblag (Elbing), Poland
4) Wroclaw (Breslau), Poland
5) Stare Hradisko, Czech
Republic
6) Szombathely, Hungary
7) Roman Carnuntum, Austria
8) Aquileia, Italy
Previous coins minted by
Poland with an amber jewel have sold out quickly and increased
dramatically in price, and we expect this to be no exception. Please
see the "Investment Note" lower on this page.
Click
here to see the other coins in the Amber Route program!
Amber
The
Mint of Poland strikes coins for many smaller countries that
don't have their own mints. The Warsaw Mint specializes in applying
native Polish materials (including zircon crystal gemstones and
fired-clay ceramic) to the coins it mints - in this case, amber. Poland
is
world famous for the quality of its amber, and in fact produces more
amber than any other country, with nearly all washing ashore on its
northern, Baltic Sea coast. Amber is the fossilized resin of
prehistoric, coniferous trees, and is at least 40 million years old. It
is not unusual to find extinct plants, insects, and more rarely
larger animals fossilized in amber. These finds created the premise for
the
Jurassic Park
novels and films, in which dinosaurs are genetically resurrected from
blood preserved inside ancient, amber-bound mosquitoes.
Click
here for more coins with embedded gemstones and jewels!
The Amber Road
Amber is an organic gemstone. As precious as amber is today, it was
considered even more rare and desirable in ancient times. The Romans in
particular valued it for making jewelry and
decoration.
Being valuable, it was paid for in precious metal coin and transported
by the Roman Army itself in armed caravans made up of horse-drawn carts
and protected by legionnaires armed with the
gladius (short
sword) and
pugio
(long dagger). The starting point was the current city of Kaliningrad
(in Russia), the former Prussian city of Königsburg. As this
was
outside of the Roman Empire, armed escort was indispensable as the
amber transport wound its way through the "barbarian" lands of the
north. All of these aspects, from a Roman coin, to the
pugio and sheath,
to a legionnaire and a covered wagon, are depicted on coins in this
program!
Click here for other coins
featuring "coin-on-coin" designs!
Gdansk (Danzig)
Today known as Gdansk, Danzig is the principal seaport as well as the
capital of the Pomeranian Voivodship of Poland. The city is close to
the former boundary between West Slavic and Germanic lands and it has a
complex political history, with long spells of Polish rule interspersed
with periods of German control and two spells as a free city. For much
of its history the majority of its inhabitants were German-speakers who
referred to their city as Danzig, but after World War II it again
became part of Poland. The German version of Gdansk, "Danzig", has been
used by the German population (as well as in English) until the end of
World War II.
The
city lies on the southern edge of the Gdansk Bay of the Baltic
Sea, in a conurbation with the spa town of Sopot, the city of Gdynia
and suburban communities, which together form a metropolitan area
called the Tricity (Trojmiasto), with a population of over 800,000.
Gdansk itself has a population of 458,053, making it the largest city
in the Pomerania region of Northern Poland.
Founded in 997 and traditionally an important seaport and shipbuilding
center, Gdansk was a member of the Hanseatic League. (To this day many
of the buildings in the old town are obviously of this era and design.)
Danzig has a long and turbulent history, and has traditionally looked
to the sea for its livelihood and source of revenue. It is for this
reason that the Roman god of the oceans, Neptune, armed with a trident,
is the city's emblem. The statue of Neptune that is found in the
central square of the Long Market (depicted on this coin) was designed
by Dutch architect and artist Abraham van den Blocke and dates to 1617!
Not surprisingly, the chief landmark of the old harbor is the medieval
port crane (Polish: krantor), named
Zuraw, on the
Motlawa river. This historic structure, huge by medieval standards, is
depicted on this coin as well.
Throughout
its long history Gdansk faced various periods of rule from different
states. Long a stronghold of the Teutonic Knights in the Middle Ages,
between the World Wars Gdansk was a Free City, and issued its own
coinage, including the rare and famous 25 Gulder gold coins of 1923 and
1930, which also depicted the city's statue of Neptune.
Gdansk is also important to modern Poland, and not just as its
principal port. The city was the birthplace of the Solidarity movement
which, under the leadership of Gdansk political activist Lech Walesa,
played a major role in bringing an end to Stalinist rule across Central
Europe.
Click
here for more coins and medals depicting famous landmarks &
monuments!
The Mystery of the Amber
Room
Amber continued to fascinate the rich and powerful even after the fall
of the Roman Empire. Often called the "The World's Greatest Lost
Treasure" and "The Greatest Mystery of World War
II",
the greatest work of amber was an entire room constructed by German and
Russian craftsmen in Prussia from 1701 to 1709. This was a complete
chamber decorated with panels of solid amber and backed with gold leaf
and mirrors for dramatic effect. The room measured about 600 square
feet and contained over six tons (!) of amber.
The Amber Room subsequently had a fascinating history. Prussian King
Friedrich Wilhelm I gave the room to his then ally, Czar Peter the
Great of Russia, who had it transported to Saint Petersburg. During the
Second World War, after the Nazis overran western Russia, they captured
the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo. The Amber Room was disassembled
and transported to Prussian Königsburg (ironically taking our
story, and our amber, full circle).
Here the Amber Room was lost to history when the city fell to the
advancing Red Army in 1945. It may have been sunk on a retreating ship,
blown to smithereens by aerial bombing, lost in a subterranean
mine, storage vault or cave, or simply lost in the battle for the city
- theories abound. One rumor places the room in a subbasement in the
ruins of Königsburg Castle, sealed there by the Soviets. In
1997,
a single Italian stone mosaic that was known to have been part of a set
of four which had decorated the Amber Room turned up in the Western
Germany with the family of a soldier who had helped pack up the room.
Hope for the room's rediscovery was renewed, and the search for the
fabled Amber Room continues.
Click
here for the more coins and medals commemorating history!
An
intricately-engraved depiction of the impressive medieval crane Zuraw
sits behind a Roman coin and the statue of Neptune in the city's
central market square, with a large cabochon of Polish amber to the
left. The
legends GDANSK and SZLAK BURSZTYNOWY ("Amber
Route")
complete the design.
Each coin is
encapsulated and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.
Specifications
