Coins as a Public Medium of Jews: How to Evaluate their Role in High Medieval Ashkenaz

Coins minted by Jews and designed with Jewish symbols or Hebrew letters constitute the most public statements of the relationship between a Christian lord of the mint and a Jewish mint master as well as Jews in general. This publicity is also very relevant for the question about the relationship between the real and the perceived influence of minorities on majority society. Public statements about economic dealings and relationships are much more apt to be regarded as influential. They had, of course, also the potential to intensify the process of stereotyping.

In this talk, I would like to call attention to the “weight” of material culture in the discussion about real and perceived influence of a minority. Proceeding from the coins themselves and their various different environments—social, economic, religious and political—, I argue that by drawing relations among coins with Hebrew names, letters or Jewish symbols, we expand our knowledge about the public role of Jews in the rising economy of the 12th century Germany, in the process expanding our understanding of their activities in more areas than trade and money lending.

I will raise a number of basic questions that spring mainly from analytical combining and juxtaposing of coins that previously were only analysed individually or not all. In this regard, the focus will be on the regional implications of each coin and on supra-regional connections between coins with similar images.