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SHORT NOTES

studies discusses the monetary policy and the coins issued by the last kings of the Piast dynasty, and the beginning of minting in Lithuania.

The second part of the book comprises articles on various aspects of numis-matic rcsearch: its mcthodology, the iconographic motifs, the beginnings of minting in Western Pomerania and in the land of the Elbę Slavs. TWo articles refer to foreign influence, Italian and Hungarian, on the iconography of Polish coins. Separate studies are devoted to the most prominent Polish 19th century numismatists: Joachim Lelewel and Kazimierz Stronczyński. In an article ‘Troubles with Numismatics* (pp. 13-22) Kiersnowski tried to describe his role in the development of numismatics. He says that he helped to rejuvenate the study of many important phenomena (for instance, the beginnings of Western Pomeranian and Lithuanian minting and of some emissions and monetary reforms of the last Piast kings) which for ‘patriotic’ reasons had been placed by some scholars in morę remote times.

The last part of the book consists of studies on ąuestions which have been neglected in post-1945 Polish research, ąuestions to the revival of which Ryszard Kiersnowski madę an important contribution after 1989. These are studies on heraldry and on various aspects of the history of Poland’s former Eastern Bor-derlands (where he himself was born), on the specific characteristics of Poles from that region, on the persons and places which served Adam Mickiewicz as prototypes in his Pan Tadeusz and on the Smorgonie Academy, a bear training centre. This is accompanied by a study ‘The Sky over Mcdieval Poland’ (pp. 433-46) which dcals with unusual weather conditions.

Since many of the original publications appeared a long time ago, the editors havc supplied the individual texts, as far as this has been possible, with lists of later publications discussing the same subject. (JA)

Tadeusz Szczurek, Obrót pieniężny w Nowej Marchii w okresie askańskim (ok. 1250-1319) w świetle mennictwa krajów niemieckich [The Circulation of Money in the New Mark during the Ascanian Period (ca 1250-1319) in the Light of Coinage in German Countries], Warszawa (2007), Polskie Towarzystwo Numizmatyczne, 416 pp., 12 illustrated plates, 3 maps, 3 diagrams, 21 tables, 4 inventories of find-spots, indexes, sum. łn German

The author depicts the circulation of money in the Brandenburg territories east of the Oder (in addition to the New Mark also in the Lubes (now called Lubusz] region). He has used numismatic materials as his source, supplementing them with relatively few written sources. He points out that in the area examined by him there is a lack of find-spots of coins from before 1280 (which he explains by the settlement in Brandenburg at that time and the establishment of the apparatus of power). Neither have any coins dating from after 1310 been found (which is difficult to explain). Denarii (pfennigs) issued in central Brandenburg (Mittelmark) predominated in the remaining period; there were no Brandenburg mints east of the Oder, and the western part of the country (Altmark) had a different system