Book Description

The anticipated catalogue "Early Russian Coins, 1353-1553" is a study of the wonderful and fascinating world of the earliest Russian coinage of the feudal and fragmented Russian states, never before published outside Russia and almost unknown in the West. Before the later 14th century, Russia was an assembly of small independent states, plagued by infighting and lingering under the overlordship of the Mongols. Starting in the 14th century and in under a century most of these Russian states were united under the rule of Moscow, partially through treaties and other political means and partially through heavy-handed military action. By the late 15th century the unification was complete, and a large single state with a capital in Moscow was formed. Many of the feudal Russian states minted coins of their own starting in the 14th century, using new and original designs and naming their own rulers. The coinage, almost unknown in the West, exhibits a fascinating diversity, with many hundreds of types in silver and bronze produced. These early coins include imitations of the Mongol (Golden Horde) dangs, coins combining Russian elements and Islamic elements and, finally, a huge range of purely Russian coins showing a surprising variety of designs including biblical themes and verses, mythological themes and animals, numerous violent scenes of fighting, stabbings, decapitations and other things one might expect from medieval coins. Other strange things found on these coins are designs showing Alexander of Macedon, scenes of homage, scenes of coin minting and ever-present Russian inscriptions naming the ruling Dukes. This catalogue includes descriptions and images of many hundreds of coins, from the inception of the native Russian coinage to the eventual unification of types under the Vasily Ivanovich of Moscow (1505-1533). Coins of the Russian states which were not conquered by Moscow (such as Lithuania and Red Russia) are also included this book. The relative rarity ranking for all the listed coins is also given, which should be of immense help to any collector of medieval coins. The information is based on the most modern numismatic research available, but is presented in a simple-to-use way, aiming to introduce this fascinating coinage to the wide circle of both collectors and researchers. This book is an English version of "Russian Coins 1353-1533" edition of 2013 which has now become a standard catalogue for Russian medieval coins collectors being actually a first publication of such scale since 19th century catalogues.