22 City view of Danzig on a gold 3 ducat coin issued by John Casimir, 1648–1668. A case of a semi-autonomous city putting its ‘bust’ on a coin. Note the sun's rays emanating from the cartouche at the top of the reverse of the coin—this is symbolic of divine sanction for Gdansk's political autonomy. This sun symbol incorporates the Hebrew letters for ‘Yahweh’ within the cartouche and is the accepted standard for denoting divine sanction on European coins of the 15th–19th centuries.

Back