The motif of a rider with various celestial signs has been present throughout Europe. Here are some examples. The Celtic and Germanic rider is from the Wolanski collection (full disclosure: flipped the Celtic one so as to make him go in the same direction) but you can find similar coins in abundance. The Suavic coin is a coin issued by Bolesuav II the Bold. You can clearly see the triskelle, the swastika and, in Bolesuav’s case, an “S”.
What is that “S”? Some believe it is a minter’s sign. If so, it would have been one very prominent minter. Some variations include what looks like a sideways “H”. Was this then intended as an “HS” and somehow a symbol of a warrior of Christ? There are other variations of the coin that clearly show a cross but the “S” is far more prominent in these coins and most do not seem to have an “H” at all.
Notice too the “lance”. It looks like a lance but… it also looks like a Jasieńczyk symbol or a type of an ansuz rune. For more on that see here.
Finally, note that Bolesuav II was also the king who took on Bishop Stanisuav (the patron saint of Poland by virtue of having been abused by Bolesuav) and issued the following coin.
This was supposed to have been a cross of Saint-John’s though the name Iohannes is featured on the side without the cross whereas the name Bolezlaus is featured on the side with the cross. The cross where only one set of arms is bent is, of course, reminiscent of the “swastika” found on some of the coins of Mieszko (whether I or the II is another matter). See here for that.
To put it mildly, these symbols are ambiguous and can be read as a way of sneaking in pre-Christian beliefs into what was then, formally, a Christian state – particularly by those rulers who, like Bolesuav II, were not always seeing eye to eye with the Church hierarchy.
Incidentally, it should be clear that this “swastika’ or “triskelle” or, perhaps too the “S” have nothing to do with “fire.” These symbols are symbols of motion and, specifically, if I may venture a guess, of rotational star motion.
An interesting example of a rider is on the so-called Leźno (by Kartuzy) stone (Głaz z Leźna) (German Grosslessen) as can be seen here (at the Gdańsk Archeology Museum). The pictures are from the museum as well as from lucivo.pl website and the article is by Weigel:
Finally, as to Who exactly may be pictured in all of these, see here.
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