The Jagiello dynasty of Polish-Lithuanian sovereigns began when Jogaila of Lithuania married Jadwiga, queen of Poland, in 1386. Jogaila took the Christian name Wladyslaw. The dynasty would produce 7 (or 8 depending on how you count) monarchs of Poland-Lithuania over the next 200 years.
From a Polish numismatics viewpoint, the Gumowski catalog (published 1960) recognizes only 2 reigns in the late 14th century:
Jadwiga 1384-1386, and
Wladyslaw 1386-1434
However, the weekly WCN (Warsaw Numismatic Center)auctions, group a few coin types in an intermediate reign:
Wladyslaw & Jadwiga 1386-1399 (Jadwiga died in 1399)
I recently picked up a coin from this reign for my One From Every Reign collection for Poland, a denar minted in Wschowa, which commbines for the first time (I think) the Polish eagle and the Jagiello double barred cross on a Polish coin. Attributed by WCN as Kopicki 8413, Frynas P.16.3. It has a rather significantly displaced double strike;
The ternar shown below, from the Krakow mint, features the same combination of Polish and Jagiello symbols, but is attributed to the reign of Wladyslaw alone, despite being given a narrow date range of 1393-94 (i.e. before Jadwiga died). Kopicki 355, Frynas P.16.2/1
Regardless of this confusion, I like the two early combinations of Polish and Lithuanian symbols. In the late 1400s, the double barred cross as a coat of arms stops appearing on the coins of Poland-Lithuania, and is replaced by the pogon, the Lithuanian knight on horseback, which still appears on Lithuanian coins more than 500 years later. If you look closely at modern Lithuanian coins, you'll still see that double-barred cross on the knight's shield.
Posted 11/02/2019 2:14 pm
