dishes with pagan coins

Chalice of Udalricus Budai
In the sixteenth century a new fashion spread among goldsmiths according to which they decorated dishes and jewellery with old, mainly antique and Byzantine, coins and their newly cast versions. A very early example of these "dishes with pagan coins" is the chalice kept in the cathedral treasury of Nyitra (Nitra, Slovakia) which was probably commissioned by the treasurer canon (custos) Udalrik Budai, a member of the humanists' circle in Gyulafehérvár (Alba Iulia, Romania).