Gorlitz Shekel

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In the German-speaking world, the Görlitzer Shekel is a medal (regardless of the place of manufacture) that copied coins from the Jewish War as religious objects. Other names are frankincense coins ( censer pieces ) or false shekels . These had at numismatists long cheaper, but the reputation fakes its importance as a devotional misunderstands.

Creation of the censer motif

Christ as the Man of Sorrows. On the left the thirty pieces of silver in the shape of Görlitz shekels (attributed to Lucas van Leyden, 16th century, Uffizi)

In the early modern period, specimens of the ancient silver Jerusalem shekel became known in Europe. Görlitz Shekel are imitations of these coins; they are larger and mostly not made of precious metal. The copyists replaced the old Hebrew letters they couldn't understand with square script , which makes these coins easy to recognize. The text of the inscriptions is identical to the model, namely:

  • Front (censer): שקל ישראל Shekel Yisrael "Shekel Israels"
  • Back (plant): ירושלים הקדושה Yeruschalajim haKedoscha "Holy Jerusalem."

The most common ancient coinage was that of year 2 of the uprising (67/68 AD). The corresponding paleo-Hebrew abbreviation שב above the central motif of the chalice was interpreted as rising smoke, and the chalice was misunderstood as a censer. Copies of this coin are therefore also called frankincense coins ( censer pieces ). The shape of the chalice was often replaced by amphorae or other fantasy shapes.

The high priest's stylized flower stick on the back of the ancient shekel became a lush green plant in the Görlitz shekel.

Jewish context

The oldest known specimen of such a medal (the Meysel Shekel ) was made in Joachimsthal in 1584 . This cast, silver medal has a diameter of 38 mm. An eyelet was later added to allow the shekel to be worn as a piece of jewelry. The year is in pseudo-Hebrew numbers under the censer on the front. Perhaps this shekel was used in the Jewish community as symbolic currency at the Pidjon-haBen ceremony or as Hanukkah money. It can be a "sentimental memento of the Jewish homeland". A later owner of the medal coined the name Meysel Shekel after Mordechai Meysel , who headed the Jewish community in Prague in the 16th century.

Christian context

In the Middle Ages, pieces of silver from Judas' wages were worshiped as Arma Christi , but the coins in question in the reliquary treasures of various churches are late antique or Byzantine pieces.

Only humanism conveyed knowledge of real antique shekels, and this is followed by the “false” Görlitz shekels. The ancient shekels were dated to the Maccabees and believed to be identical to the pieces of silver mentioned in the New Testament - especially in the case of the betrayal of Judas . In a painting in the Uffizi , attributed to Lucas van Leiden , the silver pieces are shown as false shekels. In the Catholic area they have been poured in since the 17th century to be given out at passion plays . Some participants kept their shekel as a talisman.

Görlitz Shekels were used to meditate the story of the Passion, especially in the Protestant and humanistic context. Philipp Melanchthon gave Prince George III. von Anhalt a “frankincense coin.” He wrote that this coin was similar to the coin depicted in Guillaume Postel's book (Postellus) (in this case, however, it would be an ancient coinage). Ambrosius Blarer sent Heinrich Bullinger a Görlitz shekel; the latter thought the coin was antique, but Blarer explained to him.

Some Görlitz Shekel were provided with a hole and worn as a pendant. The Reformed Landgrave Georg I of Hessen-Darmstadt had himself depicted on his epitaph in the Darmstadt city church with such a piece of jewelery . In 1671, a Görlitz shekel was placed in the tower button of the Nikolaikirche in Berlin .

The center of medal production in the German-speaking area was Görlitz , and apparently the pieces had been sold to visitors to the local replica of the Holy Sepulcher since the late 16th century . In the 18th century these souvenirs were advertised, the material was silver or tin. Shekels were obtained from the custos of the Holy Sepulcher; this is said to have been common up until the Nazi era. The municipal coin collection had a collection of at least 36 Görlitz shekels. These have been lost since 1945.

In the Anglo-American region, Görlitz shekels were mass-produced in the course of the 19th century with an increasingly standardized design. They were sold as facsimiles of the real shekel allegedly used in the Jerusalem Temple and were used, for example, as illustrative material in Sunday schools . Having such a copy privately was one way of showing that one believed in the inerrancy of the Bible.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Görlitz Shekel . In: Friedrich von Schrötter (Hrsg.): Dictionary of coinage . 2nd Edition. De Gruyter, Berlin 1970, p. 227 .
  2. ↑ Marvin Tameanko: False Shekels . 2000, p. 3-4 .
  3. ↑ a b Lars-Gunter Schier: Yerushalayim haKedosha . 2015, p. 211 .
  4. ↑ Marvin Tameanko: False Shekels . 2000, p. 5 .
  5. ^ Leopold Kretzenbacher: Sold for thirty pieces of silver . 1961, p. 13 .
  6. ^ Leopold Kretzenbacher: Sold for thirty pieces of silver . 1961, p. 16 .
  7. ↑ Lars-Gunter Schier: Yerushalayim haKedoshah . 2015, p. 214 .
  8. ↑ a b Lars-Gunter Schier: Yerushalayim haKedoshah . 2015, p. 210 .
  9. ↑ No. 5075. In: Corpus Reformatorum. P. 964 , accessed on April 26, 2018 : “I am sending a silver Siclus ... or a tetradrachm with an inscription, as it is painted in the book of Postellus. I have also added little verses that explain Aaron's (blooming) staff and the chalice. "
  10. ↑ Lars-Gunter Schier: Yerushalayim haKedoshah . 2015, p. 213 .
  11. ↑ Lars-Gunter Schier: Yerushalayim haKedoshah . 2015, p. 220 .
  12. ↑ Marvin Tameanko: False Shekels . 2000, p. 10 .