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Two Extraordinary Kievan Rus Finds In Two Days
WHAT COULD BE considered to be finds of the Holy Grail of eastern European numismatics took place twice recently, one in Ukraine and the other in Ireland.
Kievan Rus is the birthplace of what today are Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. According to the Primary Chronicles, the Rurik dynasty believed to be of Viking or Varangian origins ruled the predominantly Slavic populated state by the ninth and 10th centuries, likely from CE 879. Kiev, one of the oldest cities in Eastern Europe, today is the capitol city of Ukraine.
Kievan Rus controlled the trade route between the Baltic Sea and Volga River, the trade route between the Khazars and Germanic regions, and across the Caspian Sea towards Baghdad. Following Rus attacks on the Byzantine Empire’s capitol of Constantinople in 860 Byzantine Patriarch Fotius sent missionaries north to convert both the Rus and the Slavs. By the 11th century regional leaders weakened Kievan Rus, which fragmented. The duchy of Muscovy and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania competed to absorb the many city-states, a struggle eventually won by Muscovy, from which Russia evolved.
At that time of the 860 Kievan Rus attack on Constantinople the region encompassed by Kievan Rus had no written language or coinage. Trade with the Byzantine Empire and others was conducted using either barter or foreign coins. It was at the time of Vladimir I Svyatoslavich (about 958-1015), who solidified Kievan Rus that srebrennik silver coins mimicking coins of the Byzantine Empire were introduced. Srebrennik were initially issued of good silver, then by increasingly debased composition coins. A few gold coins with identical images are known. The coinage quickly ceased about 1036, ushering in the “coinless period” 11th and 12th century monetary lead seals, squirrel pelts, and silver grivna bars that substituted as currency. Kopek wire money coins would be introduced by local city-states during the 13th century.
Due to the crude manufacture of the srebrennik coins they are typically found with irregular edges or as fragments. Srebrennik are rare. Even identifiable fragments have sold for high prices at auctions.
On Aug. 27 the publication Ancient Origins announced metal detector enthusiast Robert Carley recently discovered what is described as a “cache of [Kievan Rus] coins” in Glanmire, near Cork City in Ireland. The number of coins was not identified. In a letter posted online by Undercoil.com Carley wrote, “These coins were detected on the ravine edge when part of it had devolved after heavy rain.”
According to , “These silver
