Where the very first coins were minted. Where did the first coins appear? Money has a story! Arabic numerals and Slavic numerals

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 the official history of our state begins. Like other countries, from the very beginning, not only state bodies appeared in Russia, 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 a modern look of the coin 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 the Kiev prince, and next to him 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. The main currency was a silver bar called the 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 ancient coin called "dengoy" readily retained the leadership in the region and was an analogue of the dollar in the modern world.

With the centralization of the state and the creation of an internal 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 kopeck became for a long time the largest coin of the 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 one side of the royal coin, a two-headed eagle was depicted - the coat of arms of the 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 got to the point that there were no shells and cartridges in the tsarist army, 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 ...

Numismatists believe that the first large coins appeared in Lydia. This was the name of a small ancient state on the western coast of modern Turkey. It originated in the 7th century BC.

Busy trade routes to Ancient Greece and the countries of the East passed through Lydia. Here, it was necessary to simplify trade deals early, to which heavy ingots were a hindrance. The Lydians guessed to make the very first coins from electrum - a natural alloy of silver and gold. Pieces of this metal, similar in shape to beans, which they used as a bargaining chip, began to flatten and at the same time put the sign of the city on them.

These coins were called Crouseids, after the legendary immensely rich Lydian king Croesus, who lived in 595-546 BC, more than two and a half thousand years ago.

A few decades later, coins began to be minted in the Greek city of Aegina. They had a completely different look than the Lydian ones, and were minted from silver. Therefore, it can be assumed that in Aegina the coin was invented, although later, but independently. From Lydia and Aegina, coins very quickly spread throughout Greece, in its colonies, in Iran, and then among the Romans and many barbarian tribes.

A little later, round krozeids appeared in distant China. There, for a long time, in seven Chinese states, bronze money was widely distributed in the form of various household items: knives, bells, spades, swords, hoes. Many of these coins had holes to be threaded onto a cord. The ancient Chinese were especially fond of the "fish-blade" coins. However, such a variety of money in the III century BC. the end has come.

At this time, Qin Shi Huang - the First Qin sovereign (he lived in 259-210 BC) united all of China under his rule in the Qin empire ... In addition to many important matters, such as the construction of the Great Wall of China, which protected From the raids of nomads, China, Qin-shi Huang, abolished all the previously used bronze money - all these bells and knives - and introduced the same money for the whole state - liang. It was a round coin with a square hole in the center ... Liang was also destined to live up to our time.

There were coins from dozens of cities in circulation on the market, differing in appearance, weight and value. A coin of one city was worth several coins of another, since it could be made of pure gold, and not of an alloy of gold and silver. Coins with some emblems enjoyed a special advantage, as they differed in the weight and purity of the metal.

Ancient Greek coins

In ancient Greece, there were several city-states: Athens, Sparta; Corinth, Argos, Syracuse ... Each of them cast their own coins - rectangular and round. They had various stamps and images. Most often, gods or sacred animals were depicted, worshiped in the city where the coin was issued. After all, each city-state was patronized by its own celestial.

So, in Olympia, in the very one where the Olympic Games were first held, they depicted the god of thunder - Zeus. Often with an eagle in the palm of your hand. In Athens, coins on one side bear the profile of the wise daughter of Zeus, Athena, and on the other, an owl, which was considered a sacred bird. According to her, these coins were called owls.

The coins of Olbia, a Greek city on the northern coast of the Black Sea, were cast in the shape of a dolphin, and then on the round coins of this city they depicted an eagle tearing a dolphin with its claws. The goddess Virgo was revered in Chersonesos. Her image was also placed on the first coins.

In other cities, in Syracuse, for example, on the coins was the god of light and poetry Apollo in a laurel wreath. The winged horse Pegasus was minted on the coins of Corinth. According to him, they were called foals. The patron saint of shepherds and hunters Pan and the mighty hero Hercules were also depicted on the coins ...

The ancient Greeks had their own coinage. They called the small silver coin obol. Six breaks were a drachma, two drachmas were a stater. The smallest coin was a mite (one hundred mites were a drachma).

Coins in Ancient Rome.

In the old days they said: "All roads lead to Rome." Ancient Rome was a powerful state. It was famous not only for its valiant cohorts of warriors who conquered many countries and tribes, but also for the luxury of Roman palaces, the wealth of the nobility, the construction of giant aqueducts (water flowed through them to Rome), magnificent thermal baths (public baths) and, of course, trade.

Merchants from Africa and Asia, Britain and Scythia brought a variety of goods to the Roman market. There were fabrics, carpets, grain, fruits, ornaments, and weapons. They also traded here in human goods - slaves, because Rome was a slave state. From their many campaigns, Roman soldiers drove huge crowds of slaves to Rome.

What kind of money "went" in ancient Rome? The earliest Roman coins were called asses. They were cast from copper, and they still had a rectangular shape. Over time, the ases became round, and the image of the two-faced god Janus appeared on them. He was considered the god of all beginnings (for example, the first month of the year - January - is named after Janus).

Following the ases in Rome, they began to mint silver denarii, equal to the value of 10 assam (denarius - consisting of ten). Another silver coin, sistertium (one fourth of a denarius), was also in use. These coins depicted the Roman gods, heroes of myths, the tools of the mint: anvil, hammer, pincers.

Often on the coins of the Roman Empire, a portrait of the emperor was minted, his titles were placed, and sometimes words that were of a propaganda nature, glorifying the policy of this ruler. Now it was no longer a deity or an urban emblem that the mint vouched for the quality of the coin. Behind it stood a powerful state, personified by the emperor.

Decoration coins.

Let's listen to the word "monisto". True, there is a connection with the "coin" in it? Monisto is an adornment in the form of beads or necklaces made of coins. Since ancient times, Slavic women wore such jewelry, strung coins on thin cords (gaitans). We can safely say that the first collectors of coins were just the Slavic women of fashion.

After all, there were Arab, Greek, Roman, Kievan Rus, Hungarian coins in their necklaces. Is it not surprising? .. Headdresses and dresses were also decorated with coins. In many families, such jewelry passed from generation to generation, "overgrown" and replenished all the time with new items.

Therefore, the dress, for example, from a large number of coins became heavy, like knightly armor. What attracted the coins of fashionistas? Shine? Melodic ringing? Of course. But also because each of them is an elegant work of art. Each can be viewed for hours. That is why the craftsmen decorated with coins and jewelry.

Magazine FX Review

When it comes to the first money, professional historians and archaeologists, as a rule, talk about animal skins, bird feathers and various kinds of shells found in the excavations. In the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean on the islands of Micronesia, for example, Rai, round stones with a carved center, were used as a prototype for modern coins. They were made from limestone. The dimensions of these "coins" could reach several meters, and their weight - several tons! From the point of view of scientists, these were the first money... And also cows, bulls, sheep were used as money (the word "capital" comes from the old Germanic "wealth", it was in the number of livestock) and so on ...

There is nothing to be done - this is the scientific way of thinking! But for an ordinary person, of course, all of the above is more likely to refer to the predecessors of modern currency, its original prototypes, and can in no way be called money in the full sense of the word. After all, these are not even coins!

Metal as a board

But the moment came when the monetary function passed to metals - but not yet to coins. As a payment, they could use metal rings, household utensils, arrowheads and spearheads, and even ingots of various weights and shapes. For example, the Italians accepted copper ingots by weight before they had the first coins (we talked about the 300 kg ingots found in Italy in the sacred spring of Apollo in the article on natural exchange). Then it occurred to someone to mix copper and tin with silver and gold. The result was gold and silver bars containing a certain percentage of the precious metal. In order not to get confused, the ingots were checked for weight, and a sample was taken from the metal. For the first time, a stamp appeared on ingots, with the help of which the state solved the problem of counterfeiting money. Perhaps, it is from the beginning of the practice of stamping that we can talk about the origin of the first coins, that is, about the appearance of money.

First coins

According to some reports, bronze coins first appeared in the highly developed ancient Chinese culture in the second millennium BC. NS. But, as you know, Ancient China developed very isolated, therefore, in the countries of the Mediterranean basin, they first started talking about minted coins only in the 7th century BC. NS.

The metal was exposed to high temperatures, after which it was formed into small discs and sent to the anvil. In the writings of Herodotus, there is a mention of the minting of the first coins in the state of Lydia. Similar information is found in other ancient Greek thinkers. It is now generally accepted that it was in Lydia in the 7th century BC. NS. began to make coins from an alloy of silver and gold. It was from there that coins got to Greece, Iran and Italy, quickly gaining a place in the economy... The barbarian tribes later adopted the practice of minting coins from the Romans.

The coin was called a coin later. Moneta is one of the nicknames for the goddess Juno. Juno Moneta translates as Juno "warning" or "counselor". In antiquity, a mint was located at her temple on the Capitol Hill.

The first coins in Russia

The first coins were brought to our country in the 8th century. The Arab Caliphate minted dirhams - coins that were brought to Kievan Rus by merchants who went to buy goods "over the hill". The original name did not catch on, but soon its own name appeared - "kuna". Half of the kuna was called cut, 25 kuna was a hryvnia. By the way, the word “hryvnia” comes from the word “mane” (neck) and meant a necklace made of precious metal. Russians began to mint their coins at the end of the 10th century. In Russia, these were coins of gold and silver with the image of the great prince and the sign of the Rurikovich. They were called goldsmiths and silversmiths, respectively. But the Tatar-Mongol yoke came - and in Russia they switched to bars of silver. And only in the XIV century the minting of Russian coins was resumed. From the word "cut" came the first Russian ruble, and it looked like a stump: 200 grams of silver in the form of an elongated bar, roughly cut at the ends. The cost of that ruble was one hryvnia kuna.

This sloppy block was chopped into two parts and received half a half, divided into four - quarters were formed. Small coins were also made from the ruble, the name of which served as the prototype for the modern word “money”. The ruble bar was pulled into a thin wire, which was then cut into pieces. The resulting stumps were flattened and minted from them into coins - dengi. This was the name of the medieval Turkic silver coins täŋkä.

Copper riot or trying to get away from commodity money

Of course, the coins are like the first money significantly changed the way of human life, formed a new type the economy and people's behavior. And everything would be fine, but counterfeiters appeared - and if not the same, then the next day after the appearance of the first coin. The profession, frankly speaking, is the oldest. In Russia, a mention of counterfeiters can be found already in one of the Novgorod chronicles of 1447. The state took punitive measures, but the number of violators did not decrease. In 1655, the Russian Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich decided to issue copper coins. He replaced precious metals with non-precious ones - and thus the face value of money arose. But this led to chaos in the coin the system and, as a consequence, to the copper riot. The bloody scenes of the final of the riot were described by the diplomat and writer Grigory Kotoshikhin:

“They were hanged from 150 people, but a decree was enough for everyone, they tortured and burned ... and punishing them, they sent everyone to distant cities for eternal life ... and another thief of the same day, at night, issued a decree, tying his hands having put them back in big courts, they drowned the river in Moscow. "

Peter's reform and real money

As a result of the riot, of course, the copper coin was gradually abolished and coins were again minted from silver. And the Russian coin was brought to the level of developed European countries by Peter I, who carried out a reform in 1698. The copper coin was again established in monetary circulation. And this is very remarkable! After all, now it was possible to talk about the real first coin, not about commodity money, tied to the immediate value of its material.

Where were the very first coins (that have come down to us) were made and got the best answer

Answer from DINamovets In spirit [guru]
First coins
Coins are metal plates with a pattern indicating that they are money. The first coins were produced in the 7th century. BC NS. in Asia Minor, in the kingdom of Lydia (now the territory of Turkey) from electra, a natural alloy of gold and silver. To confirm the established weight of the pieces of metal, a pattern was stamped on them. The stamping process is called coining. The minted design played the role of a seal, or a stamp, with which the ruler guaranteed the accuracy of the weight of the coin. The experience of making coins turned out to be successful and soon spread to Europe. It should be noted the emergence of other forms of metallic money: copper coins in the Northern Black Sea region and Italy, bronze
imitations of tools and shells in China, silver rings in Thailand, gold and silver bars in Japan.
First silver coins
Coins spread rapidly throughout the Hellenic world. Coins often featured emblems of places of manufacture. Leo is the symbol of Kariyas in Asia Minor; vase, cuttlefish and turtle - the islands of Andros, Keos and Aegina. The beetle was the emblem of Athens It is possible to determine the time of issue of these coins: they were found in the foundations of the temple of the goddess Artemis (right) in Ephesus, built around 560 BC. NS.
Cast copper coins
Copper ingots of a certain weight served as money until the beginning of the production of coins in Olbia (Northern Black Sea region), Rome and some other Etruscan and Latin cities. Copper ingots began to be painted with images that turned them into coins. In Olbia, coins were usually cast in round shapes, but sometimes they were given the appearance of a dolphin.
Elephant coins
In Rome, the first ingots with images retained a rectangular shape. The Indian elephant on the board resembles the war elephants of the Greek army that captured southern Italy in 280 BC. NS.
Bizarre shapes
The first Chinese coins (about 500 BC) were made of bronze in the form of tools and cowrie shells that had previously served as money. Coins - tools of labor for use in the economy were not suitable.
Money rings
In the pre-coin period in Thailand, they paid with silver rings of a certain weight. In the XVII century. the rings began to be converted into coins: they were unbent, forged and branded with a state stamp.
Bullion Coins
At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries. Ieyasu, the future first Tokugawa shogun, transformed Japan's monetary system. His gold and silver coins, in the form of forged or cast plates, were very similar to the ingots of previous eras.

Answer from Ўnona[guru]
It is believed that the first metal coins appeared only in the 8th century BC. NS. in China. They were minted from copper. A century later, the first gold coins were minted.
Lydia became their homeland - a powerful slave state located in the western part of Asia Minor. However, the coins were not entirely gold. In Lydia, deposits were developed in which gold was in an alloy with silver. This alloy is called electrum. Coins were made from it.
The oldest coins, the date of minting of which is known, are coins minted in Lydia (Asia Minor) in 685-652. BC NS. Herodotus was the first to mention this, reporting that the Lydians were "the first of the people ... to mint and use gold and silver coins ...".
Lydia conducted extensive trade with Greece and her eastern neighbors. Therefore, later coins spread to the entire zone of Greek civilization in the Mediterranean and the Persian state.
In the era of mature slave relations in Ancient Greece and Rome, gold and silver played a leading role in monetary circulation, although copper coins were also in use in parallel.
For the convenience of settlements in trade transactions, the Lydians introduced into circulation a gold minted coin - a stater, on which a running fox was depicted - a symbol of the main Lydian god Bassarey.
However, the real gold circulation was introduced in the VI century. BC NS. the legendary Lydian king Croesus, who minted coins weighing 11 g from the gold placers of the Asia Minor river Paktol. They were called "Creseids"
A century later, gold coins came into use in Persia. After the conquest of Lydia by the Persian king Cyrus, gold coins began to be minted in other countries of the Near and Middle East.
For example, dariki, coins of Persia's king Darius I, on which he is depicted as shooting a bow, have become widespread.
After the defeat of the Persian state in the IV century. BC NS. Alexander the Great became the richest man of all times and peoples, having seized at least four thousand tons of gold from the treasuries of the Persian kings.
Naturally, in the Hellenistic era, the most reliable money was high-quality gold staters with its profile weighing 7.27 g.
From the 3rd century BC NS. gold coins began to be minted in Rome. It was the Romans who were destined to call the new product a coin - the money court was located in the temple of Juno-Coin, the products of the court began to be called coins.
The appearance of gold coins in Russia is associated with the time of Prince Vladimir Svyatoslavovich. At the very end of the 18th century, in 1792, the first Old Russian coin was found in Kiev. She was found among church attachments to icons. It was a silver coin of Prince Yaroslav the Wise.
And a few years later, the first gold Russian coin - the gold coin of Prince Vladimir - became known. The weight of the goldfish is about 4 grams. The Russian unit of weight, the spool (4.266 g), originated from the gold leaf.
At present, it can be considered established that the minting of the first coins in Russia began under Vladimir, at the end of the 10th century.
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