Money of Kievan Rus'
The history of money in Kievan Rus' is divided into two main phases:
- the period of use of foreign silver coins (from the 9th century to the beginning of the 12th century); and
- the coinless period (from 12th century).[1]
9th – early 12th century
The fur of small fur animals has long been one of the main types of monetary substitutes. It was highly valued in other countries, which allowed for a profitable trade. Also known as a substitute for money were small cowries shells (Cypraea). But nevertheless finds of skins and shells come across not so often. The basis of all the treasures dating back to this period were foreign silver coins.
Together with the emergence of the first ancient settlements in the late 8th - early 9th century, foreign coins appeared on
The main means of circulation in Rus' (
At the turn of the 10th - 11th centuries at the time of Vladimir the Great and Svyatopolk was made an attempt to stamp Rus' coins.[1]
Grivna – Kuna monetary system
Kuna
Kuna is a weight and monetary unit, as well as the name of the coins used in Kievan Rus' and the Russian lands from the 10th to 15th centuries. The circulation of money in Rus' arose at the beginning of the 9th century due to the massive penetration into the Rus' lands of the eastern dirham weighing 2.73 g which gets the name "Kuna". Later, with the advent of Western European silver coins in money circulation, the European denarius became also known as kuna. As a result, money began to be called kuna in general.[2]
As the currency of Kievan Rus', kuna was 1/25 grivna in the 10th–11th centuries, 1/50 grivna before the beginning of the 13th century. A “Kuna system” has taken shape: 1 kuna = 2 g of silver = 1/25 grivna = 2 rezanas = 6 vekshas.[3]
Grivna
The grivna was the monetary and weight unit in Kievan Rus'. It was used, in particular, to measure the weight of silver and gold (from which its monetary equivalent appeared). The golden grivna was 12.5 times more expensive than the silver one. It is the first weight unit referred to in Rus' chronicles.[4][unreliable source?]
Veksha
Veksha (squirrel, veveritsa) is the smallest monetary unit in Rus' from the 9th to 12th centuries. It was first mentioned in The Tale of Bygone Years; also it was mentioned in the Russkaya Pravda. It was equal to 1/6 kuna. Silver veksha weighed about 1/3 grams.
In real money circulation, 2 vekshas were equal to Western European denarius. The translators of Byzantine authors identified veksha with the Byzantine copper coin “Nummi”. Proponents of the so-called fur theory of monetary circulation in Kievan Rus' consider the Veksha to be tanned squirrel skin, which was used simultaneously with its coin counterpart (part of the silver Arab dirham).[2]
Rezana
Rezana was the monetary unit in Rus' and neighboring lands. Cuted half of the Arab dirham was called Rezana, that is, 1 cut was equal to about 1.38 grams of 900th sample silver.[5]
The name Rezana (рѣзана) is derived from the verb REZAT'(рѣзати) and originated from Old East Slavic. When dirham received the name “Kuna”, the equivalent of a part of kuna was called “rezana”. Fragments of dirhams (1/2, 1/4, etc.) are often found in treasures. The fragmentation of dirhams indicates that the whole coin was too large for small trade transactions.
In the 9th century. Rezana was equal to 1/50 of the grivna, in the 12th century equated to kuna due to the fact that kuna became twice as light and was not 1/25, but 1/50 grivna. Kuna and rezana existed in parallel, but gradually the counting on the kuna became more common. Rezanas existed until the 12th century, when the flow of silver
Rus' coins
Zlatnik
Zlatnik (also - zolotnik) - the first gold coin, minted in Kiev in the late 10th and early 11th centuries, shortly after the Christianization of Kievan Rus' by Vladimir the Great.
The real name of these coins is unknown, the term "zlatnik" is used in
The appearance of coinage in Rus' was the result of the revival of trade and cultural ties with Byzantium. The obvious model for Vladimir's Zlatniks was the Byzantine Solidus of the emperors Basil II and Constantine VIII, which are similar to the Zlatniks by weight (about 4.2 grams) and the arrangement of images.
General information
It has been repeatedly suggested that the start of minting in Rus' of its own coin (gold and silver) did not so much meet the requirements of the economy (money circulation in Rus' was provided by imported Byzantine, Arab and Western European coins; there were no sources of monetary metal in Rus') but the significance of the Kievan Rus' state. Silver coinage continued at the beginning of the 11th century under the reign of Svyatopolk and Yaroslav, however, the coinage of Zlatniks after the death of Vladimir no longer resumed. Judging by the small number of copies that have come down to us, the release of Zlatniks was extremely short in time (perhaps one or two years) and small in volume. However, all currently known copies of Zlatniks found in treasures, along with other coins of that time, bear traces of being in circulation - therefore, these coins were not ritual, award or gift. In the 11th century, judging by the findings of these coins in the treasures in Pinsk and Kienburg, Zlatniks also participated in international money circulation.[8]
Description of the coin type
Reverse: a chest portrait of
Obverse: the face of Christ with the Gospel in the left hand and with the blessing right hand. In a circle inscription: ІСУСѢ ХРИСТОСѢ.(Jesus Christ).[9]
Srebrenik
Srebrenik (also - Serebryanik) - the first silver coin
General information
The issue of the coin was not caused by real economic needs (the trade network of Kievan Rus' was served by Byzantine and Arab gold and silver coins) but by political goals: the coin served as an additional sign of the sovereignty of the Christian sovereign. Srebreniks were issued in small quantities and not for long, that's why they did not have a big impact on monetary circulation in Kievan Rus'.[10]
Arabian silver coins were used for minting. Srebreniks were minted in Kiev by Vladimir Svyatoslavovich (978-1015), Svyatopolk (c. 1015) and Yaroslav the Wise in Novgorod (until 1015). A separate group is formed by coins of the Tmutarakan prince Oleg Svyatoslavich, minted in 1083–1094.[11]
Description of the coin type
Compositions of pieces of silver are divided into several types. Srebreniks of the first issues basically repeated the type of
Srebrenik of
Coinless period from the 12th century (commodity-money)
Description of the period
The coinless period is a period in the history of the currency of Kievan Rus', characterized by an almost complete absence of both foreign and domestic coins. After the extinction of the inflow of eastern coins to Rus' due to the weakening of the Caliphate, they were replaced by commodity-money. This period began in the 12th century and ended in the 14th century. Commodity money were used as a medium of circulation. Large calculations were made with the help of cattle and silver ingots - grivnas; for small calculations was used fur, sometimes glass bracelets, beads, spindling, and other standard products of Kievan Rus' crafts. In some cases, even the cowry shells, which in Siberia retained their value as a small change coin until the beginning of the 19th century.[2]
Starting with the establishment of the
Own silver deposits were discovered in Russia only in the 18th century, therefore the country's monetary economy depended entirely on the influx of this metal, primarily in the form of a coin, from abroad. In the 12th century, this influx began to shorten from the western direction (presumably due to the strengthening of the German knight orders in the Baltic States and the beginning of regular hostilities between them and the western principalities; see the article “Ostsiedlung”), and in the 13th century from the eastern (presumably, this was caused by the Tatar-Mongol invasion).[12]
The end of the coinless period is associated with the gradual restoration of trade relations (both internal and external), with the beginning of the spread of Juchi coins (silver dirhams and copper pools of the Golden Horde)
Ovruch slate spindle whorl
Ovruch slate spindle whorl -
Role of spindle whorls in the coinless period
During the coinless period, various silver grivnas existed in Kievan Rus', but the main types were Kiev ingots of the 11th to 13th centuries in the shape of an elongated hexagon weighing 135–169 g and Novgorod - longitudinal bars with a stable average weight of 197 g, preserved in circulation until the 15th century. For this period coins disappeared in Rus'. For large payments grivnas were used.
The original theory of commodity-money was proposed by V. L. Yanin. The scientist stated that the role of money for small payments could be fulfilled by some uniform and widespread products in Kievan Rus' - such as crystal and cornelian beads, often marked in hoards with coins, multi-colored glass bracelets, and ovruch slate spindle whorls. These spindle whorls were repeatedly met in hoards along with ingots, and during excavations in Pskov, for example, they were found in a wallet with Western European coins. When V. L. Yanin combined the distribution maps of glass bracelets and slate spindles whorls, and also plotted the boundaries of the monetary circulation area before the Mongol invasion, their detailed coincidence was discovered. Slate spindle whorl could well play the role of a coin. It was impossible to fake it, because the pink slate deposit in Ovruch was the only one in Eastern Europe. In China, according to one of the versions, the spindle became the prototype of the first coins with a square hole.[15]
Cowry coin
And one more find attracted the attention of scientists:
References
- ^ a b c d Русские денежные системы IX—XV вв. // Древняя Русь. Город, замок, село. Наука. 1985.
- ^ a b c Спасский И. Г. Русская монетная система. 1962: Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ "КУНА. Словарь нумизмата". numizm.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- ^ "Currency of Ukraine hryvnia - symbol, banknotes and coins images" (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ^ "РЕЗАНА. Словарь нумизмата". www.numizm.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- ^ "Russian coins and banknotes of all time". en.russian-money.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ^ "Музейний портал України". 2007-10-13. Archived from the original on 2007-10-13. Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ^ Сотникова, М. П. (1977). Итоги изучения русских монет X—XI веков в Государственном Эрмитаже. Аврора, 1977.
- ^ Н. В. Прохорова (2007). Монеты и банкноты России. Дом Славянской книги.
- ^ Петров И. В. (2011). Торговое право Древней Руси (VIII — начало XI в.). Торговые правоотношения и обращение Восточного монетного серебра на территории Древней Руси. LAMBERT Academic Publishing.
- ^ "П.Г.Гайдуков, В.А.Калинин. Древнейшие русские монеты. Монеты Олега (Михаила) Святославича". www.poludenga.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
- ^ Мухамадиев, Азгар Гатауллович (1983). Булгаро-татарская монетная система XII-XV вв (in Russian). Наука.
- ^ "О чем рассказали шиферные пряслица?". Brestskaya Gazeta (in Russian). 2013-09-30. Retrieved 2019-06-06.
- ^ "Б.А.Рыбаков - Ремесло Древней Руси". technogies.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ^ a b "О ПРОИЗВОДСТВЕ И ДАТИРОВКЕ ОВРУЧСКИХ ПРЯСЛИЦ | Р. Л. РОЗЕНФЕЛЬДТ". www.ovruch.info (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2019-05-29.
- ^ "Древнерусские города (Тихомиров М.Н.)". historic.ru. Retrieved 2019-05-08.
Bibliography
- Omeljan Pritsak, The Origins of the Old Rus' Weights & Monetary Systems: Two Studies in Western Eurasian Metrology & Numismatics in Seventh to Eleventh (1998). 184 pages. ISBN 9780916458485.