Coins of the 1st half of the 14th century in Russia. Coins of ancient Russia

Before the appearance of their coins, Roman denarii, Arab dirhams, and Byzantine solidi were in circulation in Russia. In addition, it was possible to pay off the seller with fur. From all these things, the first Russian coins arose.

Serebryanik

The first coin minted in Russia was called a silversmith. Even before the baptism of Russia, during the reign of Prince Vladimir, it was cast from silver Arab dirhams, in which an acute deficit began to be felt in Russia. Moreover, there were two designs of silversmiths. At first, they copied the image of the Byzantine coins of the solidi: on the obverse there was a prince sitting on the throne, and on the reverse - Pantokrator, i.e. Jesus Christ. Soon the silver money underwent a redesign: instead of the face of Christ, the Rurik family mark - a trident began to be minted on the coins, and a legend was placed around the prince's portrait: “Vladimir is on the table - and this is his silver coin” (“Vladimir is on the throne, and this is his money”).

Zlatnik

Along with the silversmith, Prince Vladimir also minted similar gold coins - gold coins or zolotniks. They were also made in the manner of the Byzantine solidi and weighed about four grams. Despite the fact that there were very few of them in number - before today a little more than a dozen goldsmiths have survived - their name is firmly entrenched in folk sayings and proverbs: the spool is small, but weighty. The spool is small, but they weigh gold, the camel is big, and they carry water. Not a share in pounds, a share by spools. Trouble comes in poods, and goes away with spool valves.

Hryvnia

At the turn of the 9th - 10th centuries, a completely domestic monetary unit appeared in Russia - the hryvnia. The first hryvnias were weighty ingots of silver and gold, which were more a weight standard than money - they could measure the weight of the precious metal. Kiev hryvnias weighed about 160 grams and resembled a hexagonal ingot in shape, while Novgorod hryvnias were a long bar weighing about 200 grams. Moreover, the hryvnia was also in use among the Tatars - on the territory of the Volga region there was a well-known "Tatar hryvnia" made in the shape of a boat. The hryvnia got its name from women's jewelry - a gold bracelet or hoop, which was worn around the neck - the scruff of the neck or mane.

Veksha

The equivalent of a modern penny in ancient Russia was the Veksha. Sometimes it was called a squirrel or a bever. There is a version that, along with the silver coin, there was a tanned winter squirrel skin in circulation, which was its equivalent. Until now, there are disputes around the famous phrase of the chronicler about what the Khazars took as tribute from the glades, northerners and Vyatichi: a coin or a squirrel "from the smoke" (at home). To save up for a hryvnia, an ancient Russian person would need 150 centuries.

Kuna

In the Russian lands, there was also an eastern dirham. He, and also the European denarius, which was also popular, was called kuna in Russia. There is a version that originally the kuna was the skin of a marten, squirrel or fox with a princely brand. But there are other versions associated with the foreign-language origin of the name kuna. For example, among many other peoples who had a Roman denarius in circulation, there is a name consonant with the Russian kuna for a coin, for example, the English coin.

Rezan

The problem of accurate calculation in Russia was solved in its own way. For example, cut the skin of a marten or other fur animal, thereby, adjusting a piece of fur to a particular cost. Such pieces were called cuttings. And since the fur skin and the Arabian dirham were equivalent, the coin was also divided into parts. To this day, halves and even quarters of dirhams are found in ancient Russian hoards, because the Arab coin was too large for small trade transactions.

Nogata

Another small coin was a nogata - it cost about one-twentieth of a hryvnia. Its name is usually associated with the Estonian nahat - fur. In all likelihood, the nogata was also originally a fur skin of some animal. It is noteworthy that in the presence of all kinds of small money, they tried to associate each thing with their money. In "The Lay of Igor's Campaign", for example, it is said that if Vsevolod were on the throne, then the slave would be the price "for the leg", and the slave - "for the cut."

7 old Russian coins

Serebryanik

Zlatnik

Along with the silversmith, Prince Vladimir also minted similar gold coins - gold coins or zolotniks. They were also made in the manner of the Byzantine solidi and weighed about four grams. Despite the fact that there were very few of them in number - a little more than a dozen goldsmiths have survived to this day - their name has firmly stuck in folk sayings and proverbs: the spool is small, but weighty. The spool is small, but they weigh gold, the camel is big, and they carry water. Not a share in pounds, a share by spools. Trouble comes in poods, and goes away with spool valves.

Hryvnia

Veksha

In the Russian lands there was also an eastern dirham, which cost a quarter of a hryvnia. He, and also the European denarius, which was also popular, was called kuna in Russia. There is a version that originally the kuna was the skin of a marten, squirrel or fox with a princely brand. But there are other versions associated with the foreign-language origin of the name kuna. For example, among many other peoples who had a Roman denarius in circulation, there is a name consonant with the Russian kuna for a coin, for example, the English coin.

Rezan

The problem of accurate calculation in Russia was solved in its own way. For example, they cut the skin of a marten or other fur-bearing animal, thereby adjusting a piece of fur to a particular value. Such pieces were called cuttings. And since the fur skin and the Arabian dirham were equivalent, the coin was also divided into parts. To this day, halves and even quarters of dirhams are found in ancient Russian hoards, because the Arab coin was too large for small trade transactions.

Nogata

Another small coin was a nogata - it cost about one-twentieth of a hryvnia. Its name is usually associated with the Estonian nahat - fur. In all likelihood, the nogata was also originally a fur skin of some animal. It is noteworthy that in the presence of all kinds of small money, they tried to associate each thing with their own money. In "The Lay of Igor's Campaign", for example, it is said that if Vsevolod were on the throne, then the slave would be the price "for the leg", and the slave - "for the cut."

Coins in Ancient Russia have been known since the 1st century. n. e., these were different coins, both of their own minting and imported from abroad. Since ancient times, the Slavs traded with many foreigners, and therefore in Russia one could find both Russian rubles and hryvnias, as well as German thalers and Arab dirhams. Modern historians say that money appeared in Russia in the XIV century, but at the same time, they refute themselves when they say that the Slavs traded with foreigners even before the beginning new era.

The first mentions of the primordially Russian Slavic coins are found in the annals of Novgorod and Kiev, where the names of kuna, nogaty, cut and hryvnia are found. Presumably 1 hryvnia kun = 20 nogatam = 25 kunam = 50 rezanam = 150 veverits. Veksha (squirrel, veveritsa) is the smallest monetary unit of Ancient Russia, 1/3 gram of silver. In Russia, the so-called. "Kunna system of measures, weights and money." Kuna is a silver coin (2 g of silver), the name of which comes from the skin of a marten, a popular barter. Over time, the kuna decreased by half and amounted to 1/50 of the hryvnia-kuna until the beginning of the 15th century.

The trade between Russia and Rome began at the beginning of the first millennium of the new era. On the territory of Ukraine and Belarus, treasures of silver coins with images of Roman emperors and with Latin inscriptions are often found. These are Roman denarii of the 1st-3rd centuries. n. NS. Since the trade among the Slavs at that time was very strong, Roman denarii were used everywhere. Roman denarii - the name of the Roman silver coins of the times of the Republic and the first two centuries of the Empire, one of the most common coins in the territories under the rule or influence of Rome. The Roman denarius corresponded to the Greek drachma, therefore Greek authors usually replace denarius with the word drachma in stories about Roman history. The word drachma itself comes from the Assyrian (Russian) "darag-mana", i.e. an expensive exchange for 10 grams of silver. Most likely, the Roman denarius also came from this word, because it, like the drachma, denoted a silver coin and is consonant in pronunciation. Therefore, to say that the names Roman denarius and Greek drachmas were foreign coins for the Slavs is at least silly. Even the eastern dirhams in the VIII-IX centuries. in Russia - large silver coins with Arabic inscriptions, the name of which also has a distorted word drachma. Dirhams were minted in the Arab Caliphate, and from there Arab merchants brought them to the territory of Kievan Rus. Here the dirham received Russian name: they began to call him kuna or nogata, half of the kuna - cut. 25 kunas were hryvnia kunas. At the end of the X century. in the Arab Caliphate, the minting of silver dirhams and their influx into Kievan Rus weakens, and in the XI century. stops altogether.

Subsequently, Western European coins began to be imported into Russia, which were called in the same way as the Roman coins once, - dinars. On these thin silver coins with primitive images of rulers, the Russian names of the coins were transferred - kuns or cut.

Russian coins were widespread - goldsmiths and silver coins, which were initially minted in Kiev. Archaeologists find silver coins of the 1st-6th centuries. The coins depicted Grand Duke Kiev and peculiar National emblem in the form of a trident - the so-called sign of the Rurikovich.
The inscription on the coins of Prince Vladimir (980-1015) read: "Vladimir is on the table, and this is his silver", which means: "Vladimir is on the throne, and this is his money" (Fig. 2). For a long time in Russia the word "silver" - "silver" was equivalent to the concept of money.

In the XIII century. Cossacks from the Golden Order, Siberian Rus, or the so-called Cossacks attacked Muscovy. Great Tartary. The reason for their campaign was the disintegration of the elite of the Moscow and western Russian principalities, their dependence on their western neighbors, Poland and Lithuania, the forced Christianization of the Slavic Slavs who lived in Muscovy. Many capital cities of the western principalities were destroyed, trade died out. During these difficult years in Muscovy, all the coins were brought from Siberia. True, there were also Kiev hryvnias, hexagonal ingots weighing about 160 g, and Novgorod ones, in the form of a long bar weighing about 200 g. In the XIV century. on the western outskirts of the Russian lands, “Prague pennies” circulated, minted in the Czech Republic, and on the eastern outskirts, in the present Ryazan, Gorky, Vladimir regions, there were eastern dirhams - small silver coins without images, with Arabic inscriptions.

Since the XII century, the main Russian monetary unit appears - the ruble, the name of which is still alive. Rubles were pieces of a hryvnia or pieces of silver with notches to indicate their weight. Each hryvnia was divided into four parts; the name of the ruble came from the word "cut", because a rod of silver in a hryvnia was cut into four parts by weight, which were called rubles. The ruble began to be called the Novgorod silver ingot, and half of the silver ingot was called a half. In the XIV century. one of the first to start minting the Moscow principality under the famous prince Dmitry Donskoy (1359-1389). On the coins of this prince, we see an image of a warrior with a battle ax in his hands, next to it is the name of the prince - Dmitry. The inscription is made in Russian letters. But the other side of the coin mimics the Siberian money that was in circulation in Siberia, Great Tartary. So far in Central Asia, remained the heirs of Russian Siberian coins - tenge in Kazakhstan and tegreg in Mongolia.

Coins of different principalities differed from each other both in weight and appearance.
On Novgorod coins, the laconic inscription read: "Veliky Novgorod". On the coins of Pskov there was an inscription: “Pskov money”. On the coins of Novgorod and Pskov, we do not see the princely names, since the supreme power in these cities belonged to the veche. On the coins of the Ryazan principality, a kind of coat of arms of the principality was depicted, the meaning of which has not yet been solved, and the name of the ruling prince. On Tver coins - hunting scenes.
The main Russian silver coin of the XIV-XV centuries. became money; this word, somewhat changed (money), acquired a broader meaning in the Russian language.

In addition to silver coins, some big cities coins were minted from copper - pools. There is a copper coin with the image of a bird and the inscription: "Poulo Moscow". Silver and copper coins were struck from wire, which was cut into pieces of a certain weight (less than 1 g).
These pieces of wire, pre-flattened, were struck with mints on which images and inscriptions were carved.

As the Russian principalities were united into a single state, the variegated weight and appearance of Russian coins began to hinder trade. In 1534, a monetary reform was carried out in the Russian centralized state. Three monetary yards were left: Moscow, Pskov, Novgorod, where only one type of national coin was minted.

It was a penny, money (1/2 penny) and half a penny (1/4 penny). The kopecks depicted a rider with a spear (hence the name “kopeck”) and the inscription: “Tsar and prince the great Ivan of all Russia”, on the money there was a rider with a saber and the inscription: “Tsar and prince the great Ivan”, on the half - a bird and the word "sovereign". 100 kopecks were a ruble, 50 - a half, 10 - a hryvnia, 3 - an altyn, but all monetary units, except for a penny, money and half, were only counting concepts.

From 1534 Russian coins remained unchanged until the end of the 17th century. Only the names of the kings in the inscriptions changed.
From that time to the present day, the account system (100 kopecks is a ruble) and the names of the main monetary units (our ruble, fifty kopecks - 50 kopecks, five-kopeck - 15 kopecks, dime - 10 kopecks, kopeck) have survived to this day.

During the years of the Polish-Swedish intervention at the beginning of the 17th century. the Russian monetary system experienced a severe shock. The invaders proclaimed the Polish prince Vladislav the Russian tsar and began to mint very low weight coins with his name in Moscow.
In Yaroslavl, the government of the Militia under the leadership of Minin and Pozharsky, in contrast to the coins of the interventionists, minted coins with the name of Tsar Fyodor Ivanovich, who died in 1598, the last legitimate king of the Rurik dynasty.

In 1613, after Mikhail Romanov was elected to the throne, the old monetary system was restored.

In 1654, the minting of large denominations began - rubles, halftins, halfpoltins, altyns, since small coins were inconvenient for large trade settlements. In Russia, a penny was first minted in 1654, under Alexei Mikhailovich, and equated to 2 kopecks. Rubles were minted from silver, similar to them half - from copper, half - from silver; then the so-called efimki appeared with the sign - Western European thalers with a counterstamp of the stamp and the date - 1655. Efimok is the Russian name for the Western European silver thaler. The name "efimok" comes from the name of the first thalers minted in the city of Joachimstal in Bohemia (now Jachymov in the Czech Republic) - Joachimsthaler. These coins began to be imported into Russia in large quantities starting from the 16th century and were used as raw materials for minting their own silver coins. The population was reluctant to use this unusual money for them, it was difficult to mint them.

Soon they began to mint copper kopecks, which in appearance did not differ in any way from silver ones. Copper pennies were equated to silver by order of the government. This was very beneficial for the treasury and disadvantageous for the people. At that time there was a war with Poland, the people suffered from general economic ruin. Money depreciated, food prices rose greatly, famine began in the country.
In 1662, a popular uprising broke out in Moscow, which went down in history as the "copper revolt".

The frightened government canceled the new money in 1663. The minting of silver kopecks, money and half coins resumed.
Only at the beginning of the 18th century, under Peter I, Russian coins were finally changed. From 1700-1704 began to mint silver rubles, half (560 kopecks), half half (25 kopecks), hryvnia (dime, 10 kopecks), altyns (3 kopecks), copper kopecks, polushki and half polushki. The coins were minted from gold, 10 rubles. They were minted not from wire, as in the 14th-17th centuries, but on special coin blanks - mugs. In this form, the Russian monetary system existed without any significant changes until the XX century.

It is generally accepted that the beginning of Russian statehood was 882 AD, when the Novgorod prince Oleg and his retinue took the city of Kiev. It is from this moment that begins official history our state. Like other countries, not only appeared in Russia from the very beginning government bodies but also money.

The oldest coins found in Russia are Byzantine silver and gold coins.

On the one hand, the coin depicted a portrait of the emperor, the other could be occupied by various images, inscriptions and the denomination of the coin. It was this type of coin that was taken as a model in Russia. It is thanks to the Byzantines that we have such modern look coins in real Russia.

Epochs and rulers, coats of arms and names changed, and Russia developed and prospered, and with it the coin evolved.

The beginning of minting coins directly in Russia leads us, grateful descendants, to Kievan Rus, where approximately at the end of the 10th century “Srebrenik” appears. The coin depicted Kiev prince, and next to it is the coat of arms of Rurikovich - a soaring falcon in the form of a trident.

However, a full-fledged workshop for the production of coins in Russia did not appear at that time. Basic monetary unit became a silver bar called Hryvnia.

In the thirteenth century, the technique of making money changes. Now coins began to be made from silver wire. Hence the name "Ruble", familiar to all of us, comes from the fact that the ingots were "chopped" from wire. The dimensions of the ingots varied in weight and shape. Moscow and Novgorod issued their own rubles. Coins were made from the ruble.

But it was all handicraft production. The first mass coins in Russia began to be made at the beginning of the fifteenth century in Moscow, then in the Suzdal principality, and then in Ryazan and Tver. The first Moscow coins depicted mainly Dmitry Donskoy, but coins depicting horsemen, warriors with weapons in their hands, animals, both existing and mythical, are often found. This was due to the fact that, as such, the mint did not exist, and the coins were produced by silversmiths, whom the prince personally allowed to mint coins to replenish the monetary fund. Even county princes and wealthy boyars minted coins in this way. On the other side of the Moscow coins, there was an inscription in the Tatar language. The fact is that already at that time Muscovy was actively conquering the markets of the Volga region, where the main language was Tatar, so the money was “multilingual”. This bore fruit, in the second half of the fifteenth century and before the inclusion of these lands in Russia, the Russian old coin, called "dengoi" readily retained the leadership in the region and was analogous to the dollar in the modern world.

As the state was centralized and domestic market, money began to be minted only with Russian inscriptions, and the need to distribute money abroad has disappeared.

The next milestone in the history of copper money in Russia is considered to be 1534, the year when the monetary reform of Elena Glinskaya ends. Now in Russia they began to mint money of a single state standard. A horseman with a spear was depicted on the coin, hence the new name - "kopeck". The penny became for a long time the most large coin Moscow kingdom.

Silver became the only material for making money for a long time. Many tsars tried to carry out monetary reform, copper money was also introduced, and Vasily Shuisky even issued the first gold money, but all this was a drop in the ocean and often failed. Thus, the copper revolt even received a separate chapter in history and Moscow studies textbooks.

The next step in the development of Russian money was made by the reformer Tsar Peter Alekseevich Romanov, better known as Emperor Peter I. In 1704, Peter carried out a monetary reform. Silver ruble coins, fifty rubles, half rubles, a dime, a penny with the inscription "Ten money" and Altyn, equal to three kopecks, appear.

Now on the one hand royal coins portrayed double-headed eagle- coat of arms Russian Empire, as was customary in all European countries... Since 1730, the coat of arms of the Moscow kingdom - George the Victorious - appears on the body of the eagle.

In addition to silver, work was carried out on a copper coin. The fact is that throughout the reign of Peter I, searches were carried out for the denomination of a copper coin, therefore, copper coins of this period often changed in weight and shape.

The further development of the coin in Russia was increasing. The coins became larger in volume, more valuable in weight, the image of the emperors became more clear and skillful.

With the development of the state, paper money gradually began to appear, the first appeared in the Russian Empire even during the reign of Mother Empress Catherine II. The final point of coinage in the Russian Empire was 1917, the First World War, the revolution. The Russian economy of that period was characterized by the phrase of I.A. Vyshnegradskiy, Minister of Finance of Russia in 1887-1892, "We will not finish eating, but we will take them out."

In 1915 it came to the point that in tsarist army there were no shells and cartridges, the soldiers of some units were given axes on long sticks to repel the attacks of the Germans and Austrians. In the country, the rich became more and more richer and the poor became more and more poorer. This state of affairs led to the revolution in February 1917, when the bourgeois circles took advantage of the situation, and to the Great October Socialist Revolution. The new government quickly realized the need for their own, new money. Coins of the Soviet era will be discussed in another article ...

Coins of medieval Russia

Russian lands in the Middle Ages did not know not only their own gold and silver, but even their own copper. Not a single deposit was explored until the 17th century, and serious industrial development began only in the 18th century. Until that time, all Russian coins, Jewelry, utensils were created by our craftsmen from imported metals. These metals came primarily from the colossal inflow of foreign money - in the form of trade duties and payments for wax, timber, hemp, and fur.

In the 9th-11th centuries, international trade routes of paramount importance passed through the territory of Ancient Rus. Russian cities grew rich thanks to their own merchant enterprises, as well as taxes levied on the Scandinavians, Arabs, Byzantines, guests from Western Europe... In the vastness of Russia, there are countless treasures and burials containing foreign coins. Fine Arab dirhams, Byzantine gold solidi, silver milliarises, copper follis, Western European rough denarii ... Foreign money was widely used in any transactions, it was in the order of things.
But in the heyday of the Old Russian state, this did not seem enough to the Kiev rulers. Prince Vladimir the Saint, who baptized Russia at the end of the 10th century, decided to have his own coin. She had to Firstly, to confirm the domination of the ruling dynasty and, secondly, to acquaint the subjects with the symbols of a new religion for them. At the same time, as a real means of payment, coins of local issue should have resembled in appearance the long-familiar money of neighbors that had entered into circulation.

CELLULARS AND SALVES

The first Russian coins made of gold and silver - gold coins and silver coins - were issued for a short time, only a few decades at the turn of the X-XI centuries. Less than three and a half hundred of them have survived, and the vast majority are silver coins. They were made during the reign of the princes Vladimir Svyat, Svyato-Shelf the Damned, Yaroslav the Wise. The gold coins were actually copied from the Byzantine solidi, a coin that was widespread in circulation at that time. The situation with silver coins is much more complicated. Their large, thin disc is reminiscent of Arab dirhams. But the images on them (with local, of course, amendments) go back to the Greek cultural tradition that gave Russia Christianity. Vladimir the Saint minted his portrait on silver coins - with long mustache, with a scepter, a ruler's crown and a halo. On the other side is the Lord, who makes a blessing gesture with his right hand, and holds the Holy Scripture in his left.

Srebreniks of Vladimir were clearly made by Kiev masters, and this work was new to them. The technique of making coins remained imperfect, and the drawing was primitive. So, small legs were added to the half-length image of Prince Vladimir, and it turned into a full-length one. Probably, otherwise the subjects could be indignant: why did they "chop off" half of their bodies to the sovereign? For the Byzantines, a half-length portrait of the emperor on coins and ne was quite familiar, but in Russia it caused misunderstanding ... Subsequently, the image of God was replaced by the generic sign of the ruling dynasty - a trident, the appearance of which changed among Vladimir's successors.

Slate spindle. XI-XIII centuries
Slate spindle whorls are found in excavations of medieval Russian cities almost as often as ceramics. They were put on the tip of the spindle, preventing the thread from sliding off it. However, like many other objects (axes, shovels, ornaments), the spindle began to function as money when coins for one reason or another fell out of use. On the spindle whorls you can sometimes see the names of the owners scratched or notches, possibly meaning "face value".

The best examples of silver coins were made in Novgorod the Great, when Yaroslav Vladimirovich reigned there, later nicknamed the Wise. On the side of the silver coin - the image of St. George, the Christian patron saint of Prince Yaroslav, and on the other - a trident and a circular inscription: "Silver Yaroslavl". Novgorod silver coins differ from most Kiev ones in image quality and proportionality of the composition. These coins are more like jewelry - medallions, pendants were the pinnacle of ancient Russian monetary art, not surpassed: for 700 years, right up to the Peter the Great era. Modern East writes about them with admiration: “It would not be an exaggeration to recognize these as a masterpiece of the coin business for the whole of Europe and Byzantium at the beginning of the 11th century. The performer of the stamps was an outstanding master ..., ”.

Arab dirhams

These largesecond silver coins are similar to kefir bottle caps - they have a thin disc. Noimagethe samenui, only inscriptions, but the quality of the minting is such that you can easily read the namecity, gde coin was issued and the year it was born. Dirhams were issued throughoutmanycenturies In the IX-XI centuries. they were in circulation over a vast area from Central Asia toIrelandand from Norway to Egypt ... Well, these coins deserve a lot of respect: finenesssilverchanged very slowly for them. Thus, the dirhams played a role exclusivelyreliableoops currency: everywhere and everywhere people trusted their "goodness".

Several trade arteries of international importance passed through the lands of Ancient Rus. Accordingly, in all large Russian cities settled the "most popular" coin early middle ages-Arabic dirham. Historians know many treasures, consisting of tens, hundreds and even thousands of dirhams. The most significant of them was found in 1973 near Polotsk, near the village of Koz'yanka. It consists of 7,660 dirhams of the 10th century Arab Caliphate. The total weight of the treasure is about 20 kilograms! Scientists believe that this is the treasury of the Polotsk principality, for some reason lost, perhaps stolen.

Sometimes the dirham turned out to be too large a means of payment, and then the coin was cut into pieces. Surprisingly, each part was trusted as much as the whole dirham. In Russian sources of that time, the Arab "guests" are called nogats, and their slightly "lighter" version is called kuns. The halved kuna-dirhem was called the characteristic word “rezana”.

Weight and sample of silver coins "walked" within wide limits. We see international trade or payments to mercenaries, coins of a high standard were specially issued, that is, with a high content of pure silver. They are in the minority. The rest contain a lower percentage of silver. A lot of silver pieces are basically, paradoxically, copper! This copper was only slightly "ennobled" by an insignificant silver admixture, or, as numismatists say, "traces of silver." Copper silver silver is about 70-80% of the total, and high-grade silver - less than 5%. This is not surprising: in the absence of our own reserves of precious metals, one had to cunning and save ...
The very issue of the first Russian coins testifies to the favorable state of trade and the wealth of the Russian princes of that time. But this prosperity did not last long. First, the powerful flow of eastern silver that enriched Russia dried up, then trade routes changed, and, finally, the time of political fragmentation of Russia came, ruinous for the country ...

VXIV-XVIIIccNSoltina was produced only in the form of a bar of silver and was equal to half a rubleingot, siltand the ruble. Until 1656, half a tina was a monetary unit of 50 kopecks, or 5 hryvnias.Hryvnia at it inThe time was used as a measure of the weight of precious metals. Distinguished a large hryvniaweighing 409.32 gand a small hryvnia, weighing 204 g. Poltina, introduced by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich,containeda high percentage of copper and after the Copper Riot of 1662 was withdrawn from circulation.

COINLESS PERIOD

Silver ingot - half a tine. Second half of the XIV century
Western European silver coins still continued to arrive in Russia. But in the XII century. and this “river became shallow”: the money “went bad”. Too little silver was added to them now, and international trade of that time "disdained" a poor-quality coin. So she did not reach the Russian lands and principalities.
In Russia, the so-called coinless period was established. It lasted the entire XII, XIII and most of the XIV century. Even during the Horde rule, eastern silver coins were not widely used in our country. In addition, silver, not having time to accumulate, left Russia along with other tribute - "exit".

Money and l and denga began to be minted in the last quarter of the 14th century. Its weight was 0.93 g. silver and corresponded to 1/200 hryvnia of silver. It is believed that the decision to mint sobs military money in the Moscow principality was associated with the struggle of Dmitry Donskoy against the Tatars. The defeat inflicted on Dmitry Tokhtamysh, who burned Moscow in 1381, made to put the name of this Tatar ruler on the Moscow money. Need to mark, that some of the appanage princes of that time also bore the name Dmitry and minted him on his coins. This makes it difficult for numismatists to determine the belonging of that or otherwise th money.

In addition to silver grivnas, fur money received wide circulation during the coinless period. These were the skins or skins of fur-bearing animals, most often martens. From the fur of this animal, it got the name kuna - one skin, which was exchanged for a certain amount of goods. The skins of fur-bearing animals were included in the tribute and ambassadorial gifts. Until the end of the 17th century. Russian diplomats abroad preferred to pay with furs rather than silver coins.
Double-sided scapular “Michael the Archangel. John the Baptist ". Moscow. XV century.

The time for coins is gone. The time has come for the hryvnia ... This was the name given to bars of silver of a certain weight and shape. However, in different Russian cities - Novgorod the Great, Chernigov, Kiev - the weight and shape of the hryvnia were different. Now they were elongated hexagons, now hexagons with flattened edges, now round rods in cross-section, similar to short wands.
Only in the last third of the XIV century. the coin returned to Russia. It is difficult to determine more precisely the date when the first coinage since the times of princes Svyatopolk and Yaroslav began. The year was not indicated on the coins at that time, and the chronicles very poorly illuminate the coinage of the Russian Middle Ages. According to historians of monetary circulation, the pioneers of the resumption of coinage were two principalities - Suzdal-Nizhny Novgorod under Prince Dmitry Konstantinovich (1365-1383) and Moscow under Prince Dmitry Ivanovich (1362-1389).

COINS OF SPECIAL RUSSIA

The entire mass of Russian silver money issued in the XIV-XV centuries is distinguished by rough work and extreme variegation. appearance... Coins were produced in Moscow, Novgorod Veliky and Nizhny, Pskov, Tver, Ryazan, Rostov, as well as in many small towns.
In addition to the famous rulers of the Russian land, little-known and very poor specific princes minted their coins: Serpukhov, Mikulin, Kolomna, Dmitrov, Galician, Borovsk, Kashin ...
On all Russian coins of that time, there was a mandatory designation - who made the decision to issue them: the name of the prince or the name of the city-state (as numismatists say, the owner of the coin regalia). In all other respects, the money is different state entities The Rus were very different from each other. This is no wonder: until the 20s. XVI century Russian lands were not united and each ruler was completely politically independent. That is why) ’various coats of arms, signs, inscriptions were placed on the coins - according to the taste of the" customer "and in accordance with the requests of the current policy.
At the end of the XIV - the first half of the XV century. dependence on the Horde khans was still quite noticeable and on the coins of many issues there are Arabic inscriptions, including the names of the Tatar rulers. So, under the great Moscow princes Dmitry Ivanovich Donskoy and Vasily I Dmitrievich, the name of Khan Tokhtamysh repeatedly appeared on their coins. Subsequently, as Russia was liberated from the Horde dependence, the indistinct Arabic script gradually disappeared.
According to the historian German Fedorov-Davydov, the images on Russian coins of the 14th - early 16th centuries. “Are still mysterious.

Here we have a dragon, here is a centaur-kitovras, then suddenly horsemen with birds appear - falconry, sometimes with a spear, sometimes with a sword, sometimes a head under the feet of a horse. Here on the coin are two people with daggers facing each other, or two people are holding some kind of stick between them; we see now a man with a horse, then a chest-like image of a warrior in a helmet with a sword, then a warrior with a sword and shield. Unlimited field for the imagination of the numismatist. " The princes of the Moscow house preferred to mint on their own money a rooster, a leopard and a rider-"rider", which later became the coat of arms of the Moscow state.
The best quality and rustic beauty in the general flow of Russian silver are distinguished by the coins of Novgorod the Great (minting began in 1420) and Pskov (minting began around 1425). The first depicted two people - one in a proud pose, with a sword or wand, and the other in the pose of a humiliated suppliant, a subordinate. On the second, a portrait of the Pskov prince-hero Dovmont was minted.

"SCALES" OF THE MOSCOW STATE

In the 70s. XV - 20s XVI century there is a rapid unification of Russia. A powerful Moscow state... It includes one by one the formerly independent principalities and lands. Accordingly, year after year, the variegated variety of Russian coins decreases: coin silver is unified. In the 30s. In the 16th century, the last "act" of this "play" took place. The Boyar Council under the supreme ruler Elena Glinskaya carried out large-scale reforms). Since then and for 170 years, a single silver coin circulated in the Moscow state.

STAROMOSKOVSKAYA POLUSHKA

In the Moscow state, they issued an ultra-small coin - half a half (a quarter of a penny). It is even larger than the nail on the little finger of a child. She weighed negligible - 0.17 g, and subsequently "lost weight" to 0.12 grams! On one side of the polushka was the word "king" (or "sovereign"). There was clearly not enough space for a full-fledged image of the "rider", and on the other side, instead of a rider, a simple bird was minted. Initially it was a dove, but later it was replaced by a barely distinguishable two-headed eagle.

GOLD - SECOND ROLE

Gold from the time of St. Vladimir until the beginning of the 18th century. almost never used for coinage, and copper until the epoch of Peter the Great gave way to silver as the main monetary material. A unique case of the issue in Russia of a gold coin made according to European samples is known: this is the so-called Ugric (Hungarian) golden time of Ivan III. Its history still raises questions among researchers, and among collectors it is considered the rarest coin. In addition, in the XVI and XVII centuries. quite often gold coins were issued, in everything similar to ordinary pennies. They were used as medals: they were awarded to soldiers who distinguished themselves during hostilities.

This old Moscow coin is outwardly simple and unprepossessing. On one side is a rider with a spear or sword, most likely depicting a ruler. The old name "rider" stuck to him. On the other side - the name of the sovereign ("Tsar and Grand Duke Ivan of All Rusin", "Tsar and Grand Duke Boris Fedorovich", "Tsar and Grand Duke Alexei Mikhailovich" ...). Old Moscow silver is very monotonous, this has never happened before and will not be in the future. Rare specific features individual coins barely distinguish them from the general unity - designation with two or three letters of the year or the city where they were minted: Moscow, Tver, Novgorod the Great, Pskov, Yaroslavl ... letters. Under Peter I, this custom was abolished. But on the silver pennies of Russian sovereigns, the year of issue was not always indicated.
Nowadays, old Moscow silver coins are called the ironic word "scales". They really do resemble fish scales. They were made of thin silver wire, so the "scales" are not round: they are oval or drop-shaped. Minted in the Moscow State coins of extremely small denominations and small size. The main unit of account was the so-called money. Two money was equal to one kopeck, and 0.5 money - half.
Six money was altyn, 100 - half a 7, and 200 - a ruble.

The peculiarity of the old Moscow monetary system was that altyn, poltina, ruble, although they were counting units, were never minted! The Russian people looked at large European coins of the thaler type with suspicion. And this suspicion, by the way, was justified. An unpretentious Russian penny contained "good" high-grade silver, next to which the thaler metal could not stand any comparison. Foreign merchants constantly provided talers of low standard for melting at mints, wishing to receive the corresponding amount of Russian coins. This process required lengthy complex recalculations and from time to time caused conflicts.
The government was eager to support the high standard of the old Moscow coin in every possible way, but its weight was gradually decreasing. Under Ivan the Terrible (1533-1584) the money weighed 0.34 g, and under Fyodor Alekseevich (1676-1682) it was one and a half times less ... Of course, the coins were not only lighter, but also decreased in size. And this created additional difficulties. It was very difficult to place all the words of the inscription on the small uneven plate and to position the rider correctly. Often there are "scales" with a decapitated "rider" and a half legend: everything else did not fit on the coin. The last old Moscow pennies were issued under Peter I: their minting continued until 1718. It is extremely difficult to read anything on them besides a few letters of the sovereign's name and patronymic.

The so-called silver kopeck of Fedor Godunov (obverse, reverse). 1605 g.
This coin is a mute witness of the Time of Troubles. It appeared at the time of the interregnum of Boris Godunov (1599-1605) and the impostor False Dmitry I (605-1606). The throne was to pass to the son of Boris Godunov - Fedor, who died as a result of a boyar conspiracy. The coin with his name was minted a little more three months, from April 13 to July 7, 1605

MONSTERS FROM EUROPE

The government tried to rectify the situation. So, for example, under Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676) the first ruble coin was issued. However, not quite under Alexei Mikhailovich, not entirely in rubles, and not even quite released. Russia did not know a more strange coin!

For the minting of rubles, the government ordered the use of European thalers. They were called in Russia efimkas (after the name of the city of Poachimstal) or plates. Indeed, a whole handful of "scales" could fit on a large coin disc of a thaler - like seeds on a plate. So, they knocked down "native" images from the efimk, and then they put new ones on them, first of all - a portrait of the tsar on a horse and with a scepter in hand. True, there was 64 kopecks in silver in the thaler, and the government tried to put it into circulation as a full-fledged 100 kopeck ruble. The population quickly saw through the deception, and nothing good came of this adventure. This fraudulent "ruble" has survived to this day in a very small number of copies. Subsequently, the efimki still managed to be used, but in a much more modest and honest way. They were simply knocked out: they put the designation of the year (1655) and the “rider”, just like on domestic kopecks. Such a coin was called "an efimk with a sign", and it was sold at a fair price of 64 kopecks.

A scattering of Russian coins "scales". XVI - early XVIII v.

WITNESSES OF THE COPPER Riot

Small coins were made from copper). It was called "Pulo". Pools were much less popular than silver money, and they were issued in very limited quantities. The government of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, known for its adventurous projects in the financial sector, decided to give copper a radically new role. There was a hard war with Rzeczpospoliga, the front constantly demanded money: foreign mercenaries could simply disrupt another combat operation... Under these conditions, a "bizarre reform" of Russian money began: instead of silver "scales", the government organized a huge emission (release) of copper - the same size and the same price. And it's pretty bad quality, too. The "trick" consisted in the fact that taxes and taxes were collected from the population in silver, and copper was used for state payments. The rate of copper cents relative to silver ones went down rapidly. First, five copper coins were given for one silver, then ten and, finally, fifteen! Unrest began among the people. And in July 1662 the Russian capital broke out in revolt. A crowd of townspeople, utterly furious, smashes the houses of the boyars, and then goes to Kolomenskoye - the summer residence of the tsar. There was not enough protection to disperse the rebels, and Alexei Mikhailovich found himself alone with angry Moscow. A careless word could cost him his life. Fortunately, government regiments arrived in time and broke up the revolt, later called Copper. However, the danger of new uprisings was considered so serious that the copper coin was canceled in 1663. In the indicated order, it was collected and melted, but it was not possible to collect the whole mass, and many small witnesses of the Copper Riot have survived to this day.

Peter 1 carried out a different reform, completely replacing the old Moscow monetary system with a new one, according to the European model. For modern man it looks familiar, and it seems that the small pennies of the times of Ivan the Terrible and Mikhail Fedorovich obviously lose to the post-reform Peter's coins. However, we must also remember something else: to count the "scales" by weight, and to carry (even more so to carry on long distances) was incomparably more convenient than the beautiful but bulky coins of the Russian Empire ...