RED RUTHENIA AMONGST ITALY, THE HORDE AND THE BALTIC SEA: THE ORIGIN OF THE LVIV MINT STANDARDS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

RED RUTHENIA AMONGST ITALY, THE HORDE AND THE BALTIC SEA:

THE ORIGIN OF THE LVIV MINT STANDARDS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY

(WITH A SUPPLEMENT)

The coinage of Red Ruthenia is under consideration of numismatists during not less than last 150 years. Nevertheless, it is still riddled with many secrets. The later period of this coinage, during the reign of King Ladislaus Jogaila after 1387, was thoroughly researched by Stanisawa Kubiak[1]. Earlier coins only recently became the subject of insightful study by Andrii Kryzhanivskyi . The current literature, however, still does not present well-grounded views about the time and system basis of the beginnings of the coinage as well as about coin names and how to link coins with written evidence. This article proposes to solve these problems.

1. Historical background

In 1340 the strongest and most independent of the Mongols Rusian Duchy, usually called Halych-Volhynian Rus or Halych-Volodymir Rus[3], broke down in consequence of domestic conflicts and the death of the dynasty. The state, being Polands eastern neighbour, comprised the area from the upper Narew in the north to the upper Prut in the south, temporarily reaching even up to the mouth of the Danube in the south and to Kiev in the east. In the latter half of the 13^th century Lviv became its capital. Since one of the rulers, Daniel, became the king in 1254, his successors were also called kings, and their statethe Kingdom of Ruthenia. There were too many pretenders to assume authority over the region in 1340 (Lithuania, Poland, Hungary and the Golden Horde) not to block one another. Though the king of Poland, Casimir III the Great (1333-70), adducing the right of succession after the last ruler of Ruthenia, captured Lviv after forced march in 1340, still he failed to keep it. The power in Lviv was seized by Detko, a Rusian boyar, and Mongols with Rusians invaded Poland in retaliation next year. As a result of the subsequent Polish (and probably Hungarian) expedition in 1341 Detko submitted to kings of Poland and Hungary as a starost (capitaneus) of Halych Rus. The northern part of the state, Volhynia with the town of Volodymyr were then occupied by Lithuanian prince Liubartas-Demetrius. At the same time, some fragments of western borderland with Sanok were incorporated into Poland . Brest and Drohiczyn on the north were then captured by Lithuanian prince Kstutis. In 1349 King Casimir captured Belz and western Volhynia, and perhaps Brest as well. Detko as a semi-independent starost was then probably deposed. Although some of these acquisitions were lost as a result of the Lithuanian counter-attack in 1350, Casimirs power ower Lviv and Halych remained indisputable. The Hungarian king Louis I (1342-82) co-operating with Casimir gave up a claim to the Ruthenian Kingdom for King Casimirs lifetime, promising that he would buy it from a future Casimirs son for 100,000 florins. The truce between Poland and Lithuania in 1352 confirmed Casimirs rule in Lviv, Halych and Przemyl, and Lithuanian princess one in Volodymyr, Lutsk, Belz, Chem and Brest . Cremenets became Polish-Lithuanian condominium ruled by Lithuanian prince George Narimuntaitis. Despite the invasion by Prince Liubartas in 1353 when Lviv was burnt, and the ephemeral capture of Volodymyr by Poles in 1355-6, the balance of power lasted a longer time. In an unknown time between 1352 and 1359 Sanok which had been temporarily incorporated into Poland, was annexed to the Kingdom of Ruthenia again . This indicates the new state structure became established during the reign of the king of Poland. Still before 1366 King Casimir was paid homage by Lithuanian princes of Podolia, Alexander and George Karijotaitis.

In 1366 King Casimir, conducting a campaign against Lithuania, extended the range of his power and shaped a new territorial structure on the lands of the former Halych-Volhynian Rus for a long time. The core of the state and the west frontier around Halych, Lviv, Sanok and Przemyl made the Ruthenian District or the Red Ruthenia, governed under the local Ruthenian law for half a century more, but under the supreme authority of Polish kings. On the south bank of the Dniester, in a gap after vanishing of the state of Ruthenia and in the face of the decline of the Golden Horde, the dukedom (voivodeship) of Moldavia took possession of the main Lviv trade route with the Black Sea ports. Small buffer duchies: Podolia, Kremenets, Chem, Belz, Volodymyr, Lutsk, came into being between Poland and Lithuania in the north and east, inclining towards one suzerain or the otheraccording to their power (see map). On the other side of them, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania was gaining power, forcing out Mongolian control. Casimir III, howeverprobably since his agreement with the Mongols in 1353paid the Horde the rent from Ruthenia, which remained (from Podolia only) also after his death[7].

Casimirs heir to the Polish throne, King Louis I of Hungary, after he took a rule over Poland, gave Ruthenia to Ladislaus Duke of Opole, making him the Duke of Ruthenia in 1371 (the charter was issued a year later). In 1378 the King took over Ruthenia under his personal rule. Both in king Casimirs lifetime, and after his death Ruthenia was treated as kings private propertyhis legacy, coming under the rules of succession separate from the Kingdom of Poland. Ruthenia had a separate fiscal administration[8] and church autonomy. Although all Poland was submitted to the church metropolitanate in Gniezno, the king wanted to create an independent Latin (i.e. Catholic) archbishopric for Ruthenia (which was finally done after his death) with suffragans, and at the same time he cared about the existing structure of the Orthodox Church. A separate bishopric for Armenians was created in Lviv about 1364. In 1356 the king founded a new town on Magdeburg law in the capital of Ruthenia, lavishing still particular favours on its non-Catholic inhabitants, videlicet Ormenis, Iudeis, Saracenis, Ruthenis et aliis gentibus cuiuscumque condicionis vel status existant . Other towns were founded on German law as well. Polish legal customs were introduced gradually, e.g. in the matter of the real estate inheritance or military service. The coinage, which did not exist in the Rus from the 11^th century, is also a part of them.

2. Coin types

We know two kinds of King Casimirs Ruthenian coins nowadays: silver and copper. There is the letter K closed in a quatrefoil under a crown, surrounded with the inscription Regis Polonie K on the obverse of the silver coins, and a lion rampant, crowned, with the inscription Moneta doi Rucsie K on the reverse (fig. 1). Although the kings name was not extended on these coins, the characteristic monogram, K under a crown, well known from the buildings founded by Casimir the Great, leaves no doubt in the matter of the minting authority. According to Zenon Piech, Casimirs monogram was introduced after the fashion of the monogram of the Hungarian king Charles Robert and in the beginning it was not crowned. The time of honouring the emblem by a crown is not yet perceptible in evidence (Piech 1994, pp. 123-6) . We can see a similar monogram, relating to Emperor Charles IV, on denari piccoli (popolini) of the town of Lucca struck from 1369 . However, it is the obverse of a silver coin of Louis II, the Baron of Vaud (1302-1349/50) of the Savoy dynasty that was the model for the obverse of Casimir the Greats coin. It shows the letter L in a quatrefoil, surrounded with four rosettes . On Casimirs coin there is a crown instead of the upper rosette, and the other rosettes are replaced with rings and groups of three rings. Savoian patterns are fairly noticeable in the minting of the Teutonic Order of the 14^th century (I am going to try to discuss this question, not examined yet, in a separate study on the coinage of the Teutonic Order).

The reverse type of the silver coins is just as clear: it is the arms of Red Ruthenia, used already on the seals of last Ruthenian dukes: Andrew, Leo II and George II, and adopted from them by Casimir the Great as the successor of Ruthenia, although it was then subjected to a new stylization and also honoured by a crown[13]. The figure of a lion is in a heraldic stylisation typical of the 14^th century (and especially of the first half of that century and even the decline of the previous one) and it has numerous analogies in the whole Latin Europe on coins and seals. The thing that differentiates the lion on the Red Ruthenian coins from the others is using a crescent-shaped punch multiplied in three lines to form the mane. This is a feature copied from Prague groschen[15] (being also the evidence to the iconographic dependence of Ruthenian coins upon Prague groschen), rather not directly, however, butaccording to the suggestion of Ryszard Kiersnowski and Andrii Kryzhanivskyithrough Meissen groschen of Frederick II or III from 1329-81 . The obverse of Meissen groschen even comprises the theme of a quatrefoil, which we can see on Ruthenian coins (copied from Neapolitan grossi gigliati), but the above-mentioned Savoian analogy is much closer to the Ruthenian obverse.

The inscription Regis Polonie K[azimiri] / Moneta Do[min]i Rucsie K[azimiri] shows the influence of Polish coinage. The inscription Regis Polonie K[azimiri] can be also seen on Polish kwartniks, minted in the latter half of the sixties of the 14^th century , and a similar text Mon[eta] r[egis] Po[lonie] Wla[dislai] occurred on Cracovian pennies of Casimirs father. The letter K, which usually ends both inscriptions, is the monogram of King Casimir. When the monogram was placed as a type, it was a graphic character, while when it is put within a inscription, it makes a verbal sign of the ruler.

The title the Lord of Ruthenia used on the coins and in the majority of King Casimirs charters as well as the exceptional form Rvcsie absorbed attention of scholars for a long time . In Hungarian documents one can meet the form Ruscia, e.g. the charter that King Louis I issued to give up his hereditary right to the Kingdom of Ruthenia reads: Subsidium autem et auxilium contra cruciferos de Pruscia et alios quoslibet, super factis dumtaxat predicti regni Ruscie In both cases, the digraph cz stands for (the palatalized consonant s) since the old name of Sanok was probably Sianok. The same consonant occurs in Rusian and Polish name Rus (Ru) . The all three variants: cs, cz, and sc seem to be reflecting a problem with the palatalized Slavonic consonant facing writers and die-sinkers. It is difficult to say whether the Lviv die-sinkers were Germans, Hungarians or Armenians as Kotliar guessed .

Ruthenian copper coins, devoid of border inscriptions, have quatrefoil frames on both sides, surrounding the crowned K on the obverse, and nothing but the crown on the reverse. Three letters are put on one side or the othersometimes on both, and sometimes on neither of themaround the main figure; these are the most often R P K (fig. 3), although they may be arranged in a different order.

One more type of copper coins is ascribed to King Casimir as well, with a crown on both sides, without any letters[21]. This anonymous type shows close resemblance to the reverses of King Louiss coins (1378-82), which have the monogram L on the obverse. We know some specimens coined mistakenly with two dies of obverses (Louiss only, or Louiss on one side and Casimirs on the other)here we evidently have to do with using two dies of reverses. Thus it is the most likely King Louiss coin from 1379-82.

Despite the opinion about the typological differentiation of Casimir the Greats Ruthenian copper coins, which was to imply the longer period of their coinage[22], all the known variants generally represent one type of dies. So the differentiation did not aim at the distinction of succeeding issues of coinages, but it occurred as a result of carelessness or incompetence of engravers (e.g. the crowned letter K reversed), of the displacement of the three letters or their replacing with ornaments. Thus the mint output was probably abundant enough, but not necessarily sustained. Letters which are put around a figure are usually arranged in the sequence KRP and explained as Kazimirus rex Polonie. Meanwhile it is easy to notice, that the contents of the obverse of the copper coins is the same as the silver ones, and the letters in the sequence R - P on both sides and below the letter K repeat the inscription Regis Polonie Kazimiri. They differ in the fact that the dies of the copper coins do not inform about their Ruthenian provenance. They do not include any elements connected with the city of Lviv eitherin opposition to Great-Russian copper coins from the 15^th century, which often bear inscriptions informing about their urban character.

As we can see, the copper coins are dependent on the silver ones in respect of types. We know a pfennig of Emperor Charles IV quite similar on both sides, minted in Lauf in Bohemian Palatinate in 1373 The pfennig, however, was minted after Casimir the Greats death and we can only take into account a surprising possibility that it was patterned upon a Ruthenian copper coin, and not inversely. There is also a copper Crimean coin from 1281 with the obverse and reverse enclosed in quatrefoils[24], but it does not seem necessary to reach to this pattern.

3. Hypotheses concerning chronology and metrology

Casimir the Greats Ruthenian coinage, dated directly after 1340 by nineteenth-century numismatists, is now set in the second half of the sixties of the 14^th century by Polish scholars[25] and from about 1353 by Ukrainian numismatists . An argument for the late dating is the kings minting policy in Poland: the unification of the coinage of Great Poland and Little Poland, and the creation of the multi-denominational home currency, dated on the basis of the first mention about Polish kwartniks short before 1367 . It is assumed that the kings monetary reform in a just conquered province could not considerably precede his reformatory work in the mother country. On the contrary, Ruthenian silver coins seem to be subordinated to Polish kwartniks in respect of metrology. As we can see, it is not a strong argumentation, since in the face of the lack of any royal control of the coinage in the conquered land a minting activity have been recognised as a much more urgent matter than the reform of the existing and working monetary system in Poland. As matters stood, one could even imagine the situation when the Ruthenian silver coin, created in accordance with local needs, results in the subsequent introduction of an analogous silver coin in Poland, for example with the readable aim of the whole state coinage integration.

The main argument for minting Ruthenian silver coins in the first half of the fifties is a document from 1356, in which Casimir the Great bestows Magdeburg law upon the town of Lviv, ordering the townspeople de quolibet manso pro censu nobis solvendo viginti quatuor grossos computando Ruthenicales[28], i.e. to pay us the rent from each manso [a measure of land] counting off 24 Ruthenian grossi. However, Ruthenian grossi in which Lviv people were supposed to pay the rent to the king, were not the real coins, but money of accountanalogous to grossi Polonicales used then in Poland . This notice would be entirely individual, but for a document of a ground-transaction near Przemyl, negotiated in 1359. It amounted to 40 marks (sorok hryven), and mohorych (a customary drink) which completed it, cost a kopa of grossi (kopu hroshei . And so, wherever the notion of a kopa (sexagena) is explained more precisely (but it does not happen until the eighties), it means the payment in Ruthenian grossi. Thus we can suppose that it was like this in that case, too, but also at that time it might have been account units, and not really minted coins. The latterwhich we discuss belowfinds the testimony in documents only in 1368. The evidence of the finds looks the same: all the hoards containing Casimir the Greats Ruthenian coins were hidden after 1370. It is the case for minting these coins in the last years of the kings life.

Recently A. Kryzhanivskyi quoted a new argument to support the early chronology of Ruthenian coinage. First of all, he observed that in spite of typological homogeneity of silver coins of King Casimir they make two standards: the heavier, coined short, with an average weight of 1.71 g, and lighter, on average 1.28 g (figs. 1-2), which endured till the close of Ladislaus of Opoles rule in 1378[31]. Subsequently, Kryzhanivskyi asserted that the weight of the Ruthenian silver coins depended on Prague groschen which had became prevalent over the Halich and Volhynia monetary markets as early as in the former half of the fourteenth century. And, according to him, the Ruthenian silver coin was intended to be adequate to a half of the Prague groschen (as it is visible in the last quarter of the fourteenth century), and the heavier standard was a half of Prague groschen struck between 1350 and 1356 (i.e. 3.35-3.38 g) and the lighter one was a half of a groschen struck in Bohemia after the monetary reform introduced in 1356 or in the early sixties (i.e. 3.0-3.2 g).

However, the Prague groschen standard from before the reform should not be calculated from the Ozorkw hoard, as it Kryzhanivskyi did. This hoard was buried after 1374, i.e. two decades after the pre-reform Prague groschen were struck. Their weight was then remarkably diminished since they were worn out, clipped and the heavier specimens were selected out from the circulation.

4. Prague groschen in Red Ruthenia and their clipping

Prague groschen, minted from 1300, are thought to have become prevalent early in the Halych-Volhynian Rus[32]. The oldest documentary evidence of their presence is the privilege bestowed in 1320 by Andrew the duke of Volhynia upon Cracow merchants: Andreas dei gracia dux Ladomiriensis et dominus terre Russie; [] Consulibus ac universis Civibus seu negociatoribus in Civitate Cracoviensi [] facimus, quod in Civitate Ladimiriensi, ubi prius tres grossi solvebantur de quolibet animali, nunc vero tantummodo unum grossum statuimus persolvendum (Soboleva 1996,; for the edition of the charter see Piekosiski 1879, no 12; for the date of the document see Wodarski 1966, p. 250) . As we can see, it is not Duke Andrew who make use of groschen, but the merchants of Cracow. And in Cracow before 1320 groschen are already the habitual currency of transactions and charges. In the Volhynian document groschen occur without any specific qualification, as if everyone knew what kind of them is being talked of. Although such terminology is not strange for Cracovian sources of that time, it occurs mainly in municipal registers , while in diplomas there is more often talk of grossi denarii, grossi pragenses, grossi regales, grossi monete usualis . It also must be taken into account that the statement from the document from 1320 has been interpolated or simplified. We do not know the original charter today but only its copy put in the early sixteenth century in the codex named then Donatus and today The Baltazar Behems Codex. Franciszek Piekosiski wrote about its credibility: It is not, however, written with a care demanded today of persons who duplicate documents of that kind. One can easily find mistakes in copies and omissions of words.

Against Prague groschen as a generally approved currency in Ruthenia at that time speaks e.g. a charter by Duke Andrews brother, duke Leo II of Halych. The date of the charter is unknown; it must be issued before the dukes death in 1321/3. Leo sells there advocatia, that is the office of a city mayor in Przemyl pro [] duas marcas auri et quadraginta stamina panni flavei, alias szynych[37]. This transaction was carried out not only without groschen but also without any form of silver.

The first written information about Prague groschen in Ruthenia comes from 1352, from the foundation documents of villages in the district of Sanok, most often on the very border of the District of Cracow, near Dukla[38], where the influence of the Polish monetary market was particularly strong. One should also remember that in 1341 the district of Sanok was temporarily incorporated in the Polish Crown and although in 1359 it was again a part of Ruthenia , it might have kept the monetary system consolidated in Polish times. The first note does not define the kind of those grossi yet, but the comparison with the charges set slightly later allows us to think that they were grossi pragenses. The Lviv city regulations (Willkr) from 1360 determines penalties: medii fertonis, fertonis integri . It evidences this way the unit of money account named ferto for the first time in Ruthenia, which may indicate a use of Prague groschen. Beyond the District of Sanok we can find the first explicit information about Prague groschen very late, in the rent of feuds imposed on the city of Lviv in 1368 (de quolibet manso seu laneo solubili duodecim grossos Pragenses in festo beati Martini singulis annis nobis et successoribus nostris pro censu et decima solvere tenebuntur) and then in the rents from villages and towns imposed by Duke Ladislaus of Opole from 1371 . It was not until 1374which will be discussed in a momentthat a local coin appears in these documents, immediately with conversion into Prague groschen, which keep their leading position in this way.

A document for Lviv of 1368 is worthy of notice: here, where 12 years before the charges were set in Ruthenian grossi, now we can seein analogous situation and for the same recipientfixed services in Prague groschen. Thus the importance of Prague groschen increasedand of Ruthenian grossi went down.

Now let us pass on to the hoards of Prague groschen from the first half of the 14^th century. These are the following finds from the Halych-Volodymir Duchy that do not contain groschen later than the coins of John the Blind (died in 1346):

1. Demidovo, Zhidachov raion, Lviv oblast, the Ukraine (1896). Wenceslas II, clipped groschen (3), John, unclipped groschen (21), clipped groschen (38), unattributed groschen (3); silver jewellery (15)[43].

2. Jarosaw, seat of powiat, Podkarpackie voivodeship, Poland (1951). Wenceslas II, groschen (1); John, groschen (1)[44].

3. Lutsk, seat of raion, Volhynian oblast, the Ukraine (1866). Wenceslas II and John, groschen (185); silver ingots (3)[45].

4. Lviv, seat of raion and oblast, the Ukraine (1912). Wenceslas II, groschen clipped to the weights of 1.70-1.99g; John the Blind, groschen clipped the weights of 1.4-3g[46].

5. Przemyl, seat of powiat, Podkarpackie voivodeship, Poland (1958/9). Wenceslas II, groschen (1)[47].

6. Trepcza, Sanok powiat, Podkarpackie voivodeship, Poland (1993). John, groschen Castelin 1 (1), groschen Castelin 1 or 28 (1), both clipped to a weight of 2.44 and 2.48 g[48].

As we can see, the finds in this big area are not numerous and of double kind: groschen occurred individually in three places near the border with Poland. All the three places were relatively big town centres in the investigated period (Trepcza is primary Sanok)[49]. Two hoards come from large centres (the capitals of duchies), and the third one from a small place. So apart from the hoards of Lutsk and Lviv, it is a typical picture of the earliest stage of the expansion of Prague groschen , such as we also know from Poland: the coins begin to appear in circulation in towns, and beyond them they are the object of thesaurization (hoarding). The hoard of a big town, however, is a signal of the next stage of spreading of those coinswhen they become an element of merchants capital. The finds of groschen from Trepcza are probably older than the temporary incorporation of Sanok into the Kingdom of Poland in 1341, because in 1339 the town was transferred from the present-day Trepcza to a newand the presentplace. It corresponds with the fact that King Johns groschen of Trepcza belong to the early varieties. One more difference from Polish material should be noticed: in Trepczaand not only thereclipped coins appear among groschen, which cannot be seen in other areas of their circulation at such an early stage. Unfortunately, this feature is neglected in the old or unprofessional publications of the finds.

We could hazard a conjecture that Prague groschen begin to appear in the Red Ruthenia in the thirties, about the same time as in Mazovia[51]. Nevertheless, they appear in more considerable number only together with the coins of Emperor Charles IV, not before the middle of the century. Much more visible presence of early Prague groschen in Moldavia can be noticed as well, which suggests that those coins got there not through Red Ruthenia, but through Hungary. Curiously enough, no Prague groschen were registered (till 1975) in the area of mediaeval Moldavia in the hoards from before the middle of the 14^th century .

Clipping of groschen is certainly met everywhere, as an ordinary way of deriving the illegal profit from a currency at the time of circulation of metallic money.[54] In Ruthenia, however, these dealings were so widespread, that it gives the impression of a regular phenomenon: making from groschenand new at thatcurrent coins with a lower metallic standard than the original one. The time and the reasons of this phenomenon still remain questionable. Wodzimierz Bagieski supposed that in this waynot only in Rutheniathe standard of the groschen of early issues which remained in circulation was adjusted to much devaluated groschen of Wenceslas IV. Jerzy Piniski indicated the specimens clippedin his opinioneven as early as the first half of the 14^th century (which was not confirmed, however, by the chronology of the hoards he quoted). Andrii Kryzhanivskyi[57] sustains the opinion about much wider range of the phenomenon in Ruthenia then elsewhere, and at the some time he pays attention to changing the standard of clipped coins in course of time: since there are Johns coins clipped to the half of the outer border (as we saw in Trepcza, weighing about 2.46 g, and such as was found in the hoard of Lviv of 2000here, unfortunately, we have not any data about the weight), there are the ones which have all outer border clipped and weigh approximately 1.51 g, and finally, there are also the later clipped groschen of Charles IV, with even lower weight standard, yet known from the finds dated much later than Casimir the Greats rule. Iurii Kozubovskyi (believing in the early chronology of Lviv coinage) suggests that clipped groschen preceded the issue of a local coin, or they were made during a break in Lviv mint work . The detailed investigation of the chronology of coins clipping would require the access to the collections of Lviv and Kiev.

5. A Ruthenian grosso or a Ruthenian kwartnik?

If Prague groschen were diminished in Ruthenia as early as in the thirties (Trepcza-Sanok) and forties of the 14^th century, it means that their standard did not suit the local needs. The phenomenon of mass clipping of groschen speaks against the opinion that the Prague groschen was a basis of the monetary system of Ruthenia. It was quite the opposite and Prague groschen were adjusted to another system[59]. To what system, then?

It was not the system the first Casimir the Greats Ruthenian silver coins belonged to. Neither the first standard of clipped groschen (2.46 g?), nor the other (1.51 g) meet any of the standards of Ruthenian silver coinswith the comparable silver standard of Ruthenian and Bohemian coins about 0,830-0,850[60].

The standard of 1.51 g is similar to a quite different unit, well known from many hoards to the east of the Halych-Volhynian Rus: to a Tartar dirham (yarmak) which weighed 1.52-1.56 g at the end of Khan zbegs rule (1312-42) and in the times of Jani Beg (1342-57)[61]. The Tartar monetary system may also explain the first standard of clipped groschen, since while examining the greater number of specimens it appears that the coins of Trepcza overestimated it a little. It might have been a half of mithkal, the basic Arabic and Tartar weight unit for silver, equal to 3 dirhams (a half of 4.56-4.68 g then would amount to 2.28-2.34 g). This speculation, however, has to be confronted with an unpublished hoard of clipped groschen of Lviv of 2000. A large-scale character of coins clipping to the weight of a dirham, rooted in the local currency relations thanks to vivid trade contacts of Lviv with the lands under the Tartar rule, allows us to set forth the hypothesis that the early Ruthenian grosso from written sources is exactly the standard of a dirham and a Prague groschen clipped to the weight of a dirham.

If we refer the notion about counting off Ruthenian grossi in 1356 to the money of account and not to the minted Ruthenian silver coins, the latter appear in written sources very late. In 1368 King Casimir endowed Jan of Dbica with the mayorship (advocatia) in Sudova Vishnia near Lviv. The king granted him among other things: et specialiter una quarta seu medio grosso de quolibet iuramento[62]. The term una quarta points to a coin known as a kwartnik or a half-groschen. King Casimir minted such coins in Poland a year before . It was not stated, however, that Polish coins are concerned herethus the reference is made to the local ones. The expression quarta seu medio grosso probably renders the original name and place of Casimir the Greats Ruthenian coins in the monetary system (the terms quarta, quartensis, kwartnik, reflect the value of 1/4 skojec (scotus), a unit equal to two Prague groschen.

The first Ruthenian silver coins weigh 1.71 g. Their doubled weight makes 3.42 g. In the hoard of Star Jesenany, where the variety 4 of Charles IVs groschen minted at the beginning of the sixties made the latest and the most numerous group, the mean weight of one coin amounted to 3.586 g[64], which should be recognised to be the weight standard for those coins during their issuing. Thus the rate of exchange of Ruthenian kwartniks was overestimated by less than 5 per cent. Such a scale of the seigniorage and brassage imposed on minted metal is utterly customary for that period. However, the mint standard of a kwartnik was quickly lowered by 1/4, from 1.71 to 1.28 g. The two lighter coins weigh 2.56 g, so 15-20 per cent less than the Prague groschen reformed after 1360 (3.0-3.2 g). So the bond with the Bohemian metrology pattern was broken, and there are no more traces of calling those coins kwartniks or half-grossi, either. The weight of 1.28 g shows no connection either with clipped Prague groschen, or with dirhams of the Horde. If we want to find out where their standard derived from, let us begin with the establishing their name.

In 1374 Ladislaus, the duke of Opole and Ruthenia, grants abokruki and Branice (near Lviv) to hold in fee, setting the hearth-tax, as he used to do from 1371, duos grossos latos, but this time he adds vel quatuor parvos[66]. This mention confirms the exchange relation between a small grosso (Ruthenian) and a broad groschen (Prague), which we could see while comparing the rents from feuds set for Lviv in 1356 (24 Ruthenian grossi) and 1368 (12 Prague groschen), and which we could notice between the oldest specimens of Ruthenian coins and the early groschen of Charles. There are more similar records after 1374 , also in the district of Sanok, although the documents without this conversion predominate. The Ruthenian monetary account and a Ruthenian grosso occur parallelly with a broad groschen, and the term small or the diminutive appellation grosik stands in plain opposition to a big or broad groschen, which could be both a Bohemian coin and a Polish groschen of account. In 1377 Duke Ladislaus approves the sale of the village Malechw near Lviv for decem marcis grossorum consueti numeri Rutinicalis . Between 1384-5 we find marks of grossi Lemburgensis pagamenti, grossi parvi, marks Rutenicalis pagamenti and Polish marks . In 1392 and 1399 the expression grossi numeri ruthenicalis appears, and later, in the 15^th century we can already see grossi parvi, grosziki mae, grossuli, grossiculi, grosselles, and smale groschin . The difference in value between both kinds of grosso, which is clearly emphasised in documents, allows us to claim that we have to do with a silver monetary unit with the nominal value of half a Prague groschen, yet called a grosso, so being an equivalent of a Ruthenian grosso of 1356.

If these lighter coins were called Ruthenian grossi, a conclusion arises that the reduction of kwartniks mint standard adjusted it to the account unit existing in Rutheniaa grosso. A Ruthenian kwartnik, still remaining a nominal half of a Prague groschen, became at the same time a new material designatum of a Ruthenian grossolosing its original name which was strange in Ruthenia. The phenomenon of the independent development of coin standards and monetary units, that is to say falling the coins being in circulation in the admitted standards and falling out of them is particularly well noticeable in Italy, owing to the considerable complication of the local monetary relationships[71], but it occurred commonly in the late-medieval monetary systems.

6. A kopa and a Ruthenian mark

A monetary unit called a kopa in Ruthenian or sexagena in Latin is also used together with a mark of Ruthenian grossi or a mark of Ruthenian account. As we can suppose from the name, it is composed of 60 units of a lower order. Surprisingly, this unit has been testified as equal to a mark several times. In 1359 mohorych for a kopa of hroshe (grossi) was drunk after the land transaction that amounted to sorok hryvien (40 marks)[72]. In 1382 a debt of octo sexagenis was paid back in two instalments IIII marcas each . In 1385 two instalments were paid for the purchased real estate: X sexagenas and sequenti X marcas sexagenarum (Czoowski 1892, no 239) . In 1386 a debt in a note is appointed interchangeably as nonaginta sexagenis rutenicalis pagamenti and XC marcis . Eventually, in 1388 a debt was contracted in marks of grossi, which numbered more than 50 pieces: X marcas grossorum cum L grossis .

We are informed about the value of a kopa from the record of a debt of 1386. A woman of Lviv Magorzata, Fryczko of Smotrychs widow, owes Johann Bobiraw of Toru 155 marks of Prussian account (centum quinquaginta quinque marcis pruthenicalis numeri). Of this debt she pays back 48 kopas (XVLIII sexagenas) in the presence of councillors. The rest, that is 50 kopas (L sexagenas) is supposed to be paid by Hensel Gosel by virtue of the goods which the late Fryczko had left at his place one day[77]. Thus 155 Prussian marks equals to 98 kopas. One Prussian mark comprises approximately 38/60 of the kopa. If we calculate a weight of the Prussian mark of coin with the standard weight of a Prussian shilling (1.71 g 60 shillings in a mark of account), it will work out at 2.7 g (102.6 g : 38) each 1/60 of a kopa. It would be two units 1.35 g each. This unit could be a Ruthenian grosso actually weighing 1.28 g, as the overestimation of its standard by 5.5% could be connected with the brassage and seigniorage, the preference of a local currency, its slightly higher fineness, or last of all, with the lower real weight of a shilling. So, did a kopa number 120 Ruthenian grossi at the time?

For some time and only in the documents written in the Ruthenian language this mark-kopa of Ruthenian grossi is defined as a mark of weight: in 1366 the transaction which amounted to sto hryvien viesnych (one hundred marks of weight) was celebrated with a drink mohorych for two marks of weight: a mead for one mark and a beer for one mark (a pit mohorych [] za dvie hryvnie viesny: i miedu za hryvnu a piva za hryvnu)[78]. In 1370 the transaction was made which amounted to six kopas of grossi of weighed silver (6 kop hrosh viesnoho sriebra) . It leads us to suppose that a mark-kopa came into being as a silver bar. We can see two ingots together with early Bohemian groschen in the hoard of Lutsk (1866) . They weigh 206.09 g and 194.00 g, respectively, and their 1/60 is 3.44 or 3.24 g. The first of these values is identical with the weight of a Bohemian groschen counting off in kwartniksthe oldest Ruthenian silver coins of Casimir the Great. We are going to come to the conviction in a moment that it was that unit coming from the south, weighing slightly above 206 g, that played an important part in the monetary circulation of Red Ruthenia. Now let us confine ourselves to the assumption that this unit was confronted with the weight of Prague groschen from before about 1360 and recognised as an equivalent of 60 groschen, and after the introduction of kwartniksan equivalent of 120 those coins . We can assume that about 1368 the lowering in weight of Ruthenian coins from 1.71 g to 1.28 g broke the ties between a mark of grossi of weighed silver and a kopa of grossi counted off 2 kwartniks each. Therefore the mentions about marks of weight vanish after 1370. A monetary unit of account, kopa/hryvna remained, which comprises 120 Ruthenian grossi.

7. The metrological patterns of a Ruthenian grosso and the origin of copper coins

Why were Ruthenian grossi called grossi and what metrological patterns did they realise? As we know, there were two families of grossi. Gros tournois, gigliato of Naples and Prague groschen belong to the group of higher standards, at first of about 4 g, coming from Rome[83], and each of these standards had its own range of imitations comprising West and Central Europe and the Latin East. The other line of grossi comes from North Italy, where at the end of the 12^th century silver coins started to be enlarged gradually, beginning from about 1.46 g in Genoa to about 2.18 g in Venice . The grossi of this type on the one handtogether with the political and commercial influences of Venicebecame current in the Alpine lands and in the Greek East, and on the other hand, found their equivalences in Lower Lorraine and Frisia (the later Netherlands) at the end of the 13^th century, from where this standard, under the name of wittens, shillings or artigs, dominated in turn North Germany and the Baltic countries. In the 14^th century North Poland was in the area of a light grosso, while South Poland found itself in the area of a heavy groschen, represented almost exclusively by Bohemian coinage. Obviously the division was dynamic. Against a background of those two trends a Ruthenian grosso belongs naturally to the group of small grossi. In the third quarter of the 14^th century when this coin was made, the significance of small grossi was increasing in the Baltic trade (Gotland gote, Hanseatic Witten) and remained at the Balkans and the Black Sea (a Venetian grosso and its imitations). The Red Ruthenia kept close trade connections both with the coast of the Black Sea and its Balkan base, and with the Baltic Prussia. Thus the existence of a light grosso here is utterly comprehensible. Curiously enough, these contacts are not generally testified with the finds of coins, while they are well known from documents .

The second part of the Lviv coinage in the times of Casimir the Great and his direct successors are copper coins. Although all researchers agree to regard them as a unique phenomenon, they were rarely considered thoroughly. Perhaps the reasons were their shoddy workmanship and poor preservation. The copper coins are known almost entirely from single finds and mainly from the Poltva river in Lviv, thus the collection specimens are heavily corroded. The best preserved specimens of copper coins in the collection of the National Museum in Cracow weigh about 1.2 g.

Numismatists call the Ruthenian coppers the copper denars or pulos. The first namesupposedly based on the sourcesputs them in the West-European monetary tradition, while the other in the Rus-Mongolian tradition (though pulos in the Russian Nizh were minted later, after 1380).

It is difficult to find the ground for the opinion about the occurrence of Ruthenian copper coins in written sources[86]. It may be the act of 1386, where Duke Ladislaus II of Opole and Ruthenia gave Denhard of Dunajw the right to the collection tolls in this village situated in the district of Lviv. The document is known from a damaged copy of the 17^th century, and all we can read out of it as regards the tariff of customs is et a quolibet bove tres denarios . The interpretation of this record, placed in the document qualified by the editor as of questionable authenticity, is very troublesome. The more so, becauseaccording to the hitherto existing research on copper coinstheir minting was finished four years before the issuing of that document . If the reference is made to Ruthenian copper coins here, it would have been an exceptionally low toll. It is more probable that the denarius was a unit of account here and it was realized with a larger number of copper coins.

Copper coins are not rare in stray finds, but they assemble only in big towns: first of all in Lviv, and also in Przemyl and Halicz, as well as in the ephemeral Moldavian emporium in Orheiul Vechi (district of Orhei), where Casimir the Greats copper coin was found during an archaeological excavation between 1947-55[89]. We know only about one hoard of these coins, turned up before 1886, perhaps in the neibourghood of Khotin . It contained probably the coppers of all the three rulers who minted them: King Casimir (1349-70), Duke Ladislaus (1371-8) and King Louis (1378-82), as well as an anonymous Tartar pul, slightly resembling the coin from the al-Jadid mint from AH 773 (AD 1371/2) . Unfortunately this unique find has not been described in the way which would make an interpretation possible, but it gives Ruthenian copper coins the Tartar context, which all the scholars using the name pulo had suspect.

The uniqueness of a copper coin in the Latin circle at that time was commonly noticed. It is not a quite exact opinion on account of the abundant copper coinage in the first half of the 14^th century in Denmark, but it is quite accurate for the consideration on the coinage of Lviv. R. Kiersnowski[92] opposed the interpreting of the Ruthenian copper coinage as the effect of the local circulation needs and he perceived it rather as a result of the influences of the Byzantine-Muslim circle, comprising Byzantium, South Italy and the Mongolian East, and in the second half of the 14^th century also the Balkans and the coast of the Adriatic Sea. But even in this region copper could act as money only in connection with silver. Thereby also the chronology of the origin of those coppers should be regarded as identical with the chronology of the origin of half-grossi. As a matter of fact, a foreign coin could be that silver necessary for giving the exchanging value to a copper coin. Nevertheless, the above-mentioned iconographic dependence of copper coins upon Ruthenian silver coins confirms the close relationship between them, and the lack of municipal symbols or the towns name on the type belies the connections of copper coins with the city of Lviv. We should remember the remarks of Janusz Sztetyo, who pointed out the affluence of masses of uprooted people to rapidly growing town centres, as a probable reason of the issue of such coins of exceptionally small value for that time .

Before we start looking for system patterns for Ruthenian coppers, let us notice that nobodyas far as I knowhas examined using modern techniques whether these coins do not contain accidentally a symbolic alloy of silver. Meanwhile without the investigation it would be impossible to recognise the metal of such coins as a Venetian quartarolo, made as a quarter-denar, containing 0.003% silver and weighing 1.6 g, and during the times of Lorenzo Tiepolos rule (1268-75) enlarged to the weight of 2.5 g[95], or a Genoese quartari minted till 1339, made of a similar alloy and weighing 0.80-0.88 g .

Did monetary systems composed of silver coin that belonged to the tradition of a small grosso and copper coin exist in the mid-14^th century? We can find a system like this in Bulgaria, where silver groshove and copper trachea of more or less the same weight were minted: about 1.65 g during the times of Theodore Svetoslav Terter (1300-22), diminished gradually in the reign of the following rulers. Bulgarian trachea seem to refer to Byzantine flat assaria (of about 2 g) than to the real trachea in respect of the type and size. From 1360 the Bulgarian dynast John Sratsimir was the despote of Vidin, minting silver groshove together with copper coins of a weight falling gradually from about 1.15-1.20 g to 0.6 g at the very end of the 14^th century[97]. The Bulgarian coinage was at the time dependent on the Ragusan, where also a silver grosso coexisted with a copper coin, follaro, being its 1/30. A wide-spread Ragusan grosso following the very fast increase of silver prices (and the falling supply of this metal) lost its metallic standard from 1.95 g in 1337 to 1.67 g in 1356, 1.52 g in 1370, and to 1.43 g in 1372. The Cattaro coinage looked alike in the third quarter of the 14^th century . It is characteristic that Voivode Ladislaus I beginning the Wallachian coinage in 1365-9 reached already for the much lower standard of a grosso, which was about 1.05 g . All those standards mixed in the Black Sea trade, with the crucial points in Genoese colonies in Caffa, Kilia and Pera (Galata). And the finds of the local copper coins are typical in bigger towns of the Balkans as well as in Moldavia and Wallachia in the latter half of the 14^th century . As we can see, those monetary systems consisting of a small grosso and a copper coin derive from the meeting of Venetian and Byzantine influences.

In the Golden Horde we can also see a monetary system similar to Ragusan or Bulgarian, although it is not based on the tradition of grossi. A silver dirham with the weight of 1.52-1.56 g was changed there into 32 coppers called pul[101]. Tartar puls weighed 2.7-1.9 g and their weight was dependent on the copper price, so they were not purely credit coins . In the Tartar circle the mint called Shahr al-Jadid, Yanghi-Shahr or Yanghi-Shahr al-Mahrusa on the coins, minted dirhams and puls is particularly interesting. The scholars locate it in the hillfort Orheiul Vechi in Moldavia and they connect it with the presence of Ordu-Khan Abdullah (1362-9) there in the years AH 765-6 (AD 1363/4-1364/5). This mint worked only 5 years . It was not only the nearest Tartar mint from Lviv, but also situated on the main trade route linking Lviv and the Black Sea. It was in Orheiul Vechi where Casimir the Greats Lviv copper coin was found . It shows the similarity of money circulation in both towns, where mints appeared at the same time, minting coins of the similar value. We should also note the find of a Byzantine bronze coin of John VI Cantacuzenus (1347-54) in Lutsk (before 1900) , testifying the influx of bronzes from the south to Ruthenia.

The northern direction of Lviv trade relations also brings possible patterns of coin standards, although devoid of the copper fraction. From 1365 the main coin of Hansa was a witten with the weight of about 1.30 g[106]close to the lighter Ruthenian grosso. The predecessor and metrological pattern of a witten was a Gotlandic gote weighing to 1.40 g . Lviv is connected with the Baltic not only through the merchants of Toru numerously appearing in the town, but also the only imitation of a Ruthenian grosso: the silver coin of Duke Siemowit III of Mazovia (1341-81). One of the specimens was found in Lviv . In the 14^th century Mazovia lay within the scope of Teutonic coin circulation; so the borrowing from Lviv was to be either an unsuccessful try at reorientation, or on the contraryan attempt to build a higher monetary unit on a Teutonic pfennig, but comparable with the neighbouring ones.

8. A Ruthenian mark and an Italian roublethe origin of Ruthenian currency

The southern influences seem to be more probable, however, as the genesis of the Red-Ruthenian coinage. In my opinion the crucial thing is the origin of silver coined in the mint of Lviv. We know it from slightly later sources, but we may suppose that they reflect also the state of affairs in the period of our interest. Mykola Kotliar noticed that the Voivode of Moldavia Alexander I the Good in his document for Lviv merchants of 1407 controlled the transport of silver to Lviv. Kotliar assumed that in this way silver mined in Transylvania supplied also the Lviv mint[109]. A much earlier document was not noticed, which puts this matter in a different light. In 1388 King Ladislaus Jogaila of Poland testifies in Ruthenian that Petr, voevoda moldavskii, pozychyl nam 4000 rublii friazhskogo serebra (Voivode Peter of Moldavia lent us 4000 roubles of Friagi silver). And Voivode Peter Musat writes: 3000 friazhskogo serebra tym viesom, shto pochali davati u Lutsku, a dodali esmy u Sochafy, usiekh stoit na [v]sem schetu 3000 rublii friazhskogo serebra (3000 of Friagi silver in this way, that they begun to give in Lutsk and we added in Suceava, all the bill together 3000 roubles of Friagi silver). The information has been left unnoticed by Polish authors, who saw only Prague silver in it , not arousing their interest. Russian scholars had no doubts that friazhskoe serebro is Italian silver since Friagi is an Eastern-Slavonic name for Italy (taken from the medieval Greek appellation for Franks). The roubles of Italian silver are fully comprehensible in this context: they are sommi, the ingots of silver of the standard 0.800, weighing nominally 206.5 g (in fact they were usually a little lighter, about 200 g, and the difference was compensated with coinscompare, however, the weight of one of the ingots from the Lutsk hoard!), produced and used in Genoese colonies at the Black Sea: Kilia, Caffa and Tana . They were called roubles due to the similarity in weight and form with the rouble ingots used in the Rus.

So in spite of the fact there is no find of any coins from this circle in the Red Ruthenia we can see that silver flew here from the south. In that case we can point Balkan grossi and follari as the patterns of silver and copper standards of the Lviv mint in the sixties of the 14^th century. The names kwartniks for heavier silver coins, Ruthenian grossi for lighter silver coins (and for Prague groschen with clipped outer borders) and probably pulos for copper coins, have to be admitted as the most proper ones. The last-mentionedon account of the fact that the idea of Dalmatian follari or Byzantine assaria had to pass through Bassarabia, which used the monetary account of the Horde. A copper coin did not fit to the system of a kwartnik and a broad Prague groschen, so it was rather not minted before the devaluation of a silver coin, that is between 1368 and 1370. The relation between a grosso and a pulo could amount to 1:32 (Tartar fashion) or 1:30 (Balkan fashion). As in Poland a big groschen was divided into 16 denars (so a kwartnik into 8), it is possible that the market forced the scheme 1:32. Thus a Cracovian denar would be hypothetically converted to 4 Ruthenian pulos.

9. Conclusions

Prague groschen began to flow to Red Ruthenia in the thirties of the 14^th century. As at the end of the fifties, 60 of their pieces were equal in respect of the weight to a silver mark-bar from Pontic Genoese colonies, called a sommo (c 206 g), a mark became equal to a kopa of groschen. Groschen were adapted here by clipping to the Tartar coin standards: a dirham (1.51 g) and probably ½ of a mithkal (c 2.3 g).

The groschen clipped to the weight of a dirham became the base of a monetary unit, probably a unit of account, which was given a name of a grosso, used for coins of this size circulating at the Balkans. Eventually a Prague groschen clipped to the weight of about 1.51 g. became the first materialization of a Ruthenian grosso of account.

The monetary autonomy of Red Ruthenia under the king of Polands rule was the consequence of its legal and political autonomy, the separate character of its customs, and economic development. That is the reason why the king, although he undoubtedly aimed at controlling the coin market, did not extend the circulation of the Cracovian coinage here, but he established a local mint.

Casimir the Great in the unknown time, little preceding the year 1368, introduced to Ruthenia a coin called officially a kwartnik, with the exchange rate of ½ of a Prague groschen (1.71 g). At the same time the obligations in Ruthenian grossi were converted to Prague groschen at the rate of 1 to 2, which probably aimed at their enlarging (by 13%) and realising with newly introduced coins. The artistic design of the coins, linking various European patterns (inter alia the Savoian one), is a genuine work of a Lviv artisan. It was an unsuccessful attempt to introduce the coinage in the Polish fashion in Ruthenia. A kopa became equal to 120 kwartniks.

Between 1368 and 1370 a kwartnik coin was lowered in weight by 1/4not only below the weight of a half Prague groschen, but also below the previous account standard of a Ruthenian grosso. It resulted in the decrease in the standard of the Ruthenian grosso of account, whose name it adopted. Also copper coins appeared in circulation at that time, probably called pulos and making 1/32 of a Ruthenian grosso. A mark-kopa, which numbered 120 new Ruthenian grossi then, lost its value together with a kwartnik.

The weak points of the presented hypothesis are: relatively late convergence of weight of sommo with a weight of a kopa of Prague groschen, frequent in the sources undistinguishing between a mark-kopa of Ruthenian grossi and a mark of Prague groschen and the lack of new data on coin alloy.[113]

A Postscript

There were three more articles published after this study had been completed[114]. At the first, Stanisaw Suchodolski polemicized with Kryzhanivskyi about the text and meaning of inscriptions of King Casimirs silver coins as well as about the beginning of the coinage , and subsequently, Kryzhanivskyi refuted arguments of Suchodolski and mine, sustaining his opinion about the early beginning of the coinage . Serhii Pyvovarov described a short list of the fourteenth century coins found in Bukovina and presented some new pieces of information on coin finds and metrological data of clipped groschen . He discerns two weight groups of the latter: the heavier one of the mean weight 2.33g, and the lighter one of 1.23g. One can observe that the heavier weight exactly meets the half-mithkal standard of 2.28-2.34g that I guessed for the heaviest group of clipped groschen. Pyvovarov is of opinion that these coins reflect the doubled weight standard of Louis the Greats Ruthenian grossi (struck between 1379-82). This opinion cannot be accepted since the heaviest clipped coins are those of John the Blind (1310-46) and they occurred as early as in the thirties. The lighter clipped groschen standard, as calculated by Pyvovarov, is close to the lighter standard of Ruthenian silver coins of Casimir the Great (1.28g). One can observe, though, that the heavier group by Pyvovarov agrees with the heavier group by Kryzhanivskyi, whereas the lighter clipped groschen have been treated too generally by Pyvovarov. In fact they are divided into two smaller groups discerned by Kryzhanivskyi: the one of the mean weight of 1.51g and the other of 1.16g on average . The former has been discussed above, and the latter was probably contemporary to the Ruthenian grossi of King Louis the Great.

Suchodolski tried, unlike me, to explain the form Ruczie as an attempt to write the Slavonic name by a German. On the other hand, he points out Hungarian coins as patterns of the inscription syntax: Regis Polonie Kazimiri / Moneta domini Ruczie Kazimiri . These remarks are more complementary than controversial towards my study. It is quite differently with the study by Kryzhanivskyi who abides by the opinion about the beginning of the Ruthenian coinage in the former half of the fifties . He underestimates the delayed occurrence of Casimirs Ruthenian coins in hoards, passes over in silence other my arguments expressed above, and the arguments supporting his opinion come down to the following points:

1. The King Casimirs bestowal for Lviv from 1356 contains the passage: de quolibet manso pro censu nobis solvendo viginti quatuor grossos computando Ruthenicales. A Ruthenian monetary account could not exist without Ruthenian coins.

2. If the Ruthenian and Cracow monetary systems had been formed together and dependently one on another in 1367, the copper denars would have not been created which were absolutely alien to Polish coinage (Kryzhanivskyi names the copper Ruthenian coins denars).

3. Kryzhanivskyi quoted a series of unpublished modern tests of Ruthenian silver coins that shows their silver fineness 95 per cent and more. For the first time we have reliable data of that kind. The mint standard of the oldest groszyki (as Kryzhanivskyi calls improperly the Ruthenian silver coins, instead of grosiki) differs from Polish half-groschen (as he calls Polish kwartniks). The silver content of the former was 1.61g (or 1.54g since Kryzhanivskyi is not consistent in his opinion) whereas the most valuable variety of Polish coins contained only 1.22g of pure silver and the whole Cracow groschen contained 2.47g of pure silver. The high silver content of the oldest silvers indicates they were adjusted to the silver standard of half Prague groschen of 3.58g weight and 94 per cent fineness (i.e. 3.36g of fine silver). Such data on groschen standard from the thirteen fifties was published by Castelin[121]. Thus the oldest Ruthenian coins were coined contemporarily with such valuable Bohemian groschen, i.e. in the fifties.

4. King Casimir the Great thought highly of his newly captured Province of Ruthenia. Facing the complete lack of coinage there, he aimed at creating monetary conditions to the newly-arrived merchants and craftsmen like they used to have abroad. Thus the king had to coin money as early as possible, i.e. in the fifties.

Let us comment these points one after the other.

Ad 1. It is not necessary a Ruthenian grosso to be a coin struck in Ruthenia. As it was shown above, it perfectly might be a foreign coin, whether clipped in Ruthenia or not, i.e. the Prague groschen and the Tartar dirham. And even the Ruthenian money of account, as these viginti quatuor grossos computando Ruthenicales should be interpreted, does not need any coin of actually Ruthenian origin. The main Polish later medieval monetary units, the Polish florin and the Polish groschen (zoty polski, grosz polski), were deprived of any equivalent coinage till 1663 and 1526 respectively, the ephemeral coinages of the Cracow florin c. 1330 and the Cracow groschen by 1370 being of no importance for the Polish monetary system. There were many similar ghost-currencies in medieval and early modern Europe. It is clear that King Casimir expected Lviv citizens to pay him rents with coins commonly used in Lviv. The most obvious explanation of the term Ruthenian grosso in 1356, is the coinage that may be observed as being buried in Ruthenian hoards about this time. And this coinage are the clipped Prague groschen.

Ad 2. The copper Ruthenian coins were never called denars in the past and there is no reason to do it now. According to my hypothesis, the copper pulos were struck later than heavy Ruthenian silvers and probably contemporarily with the lighter ones. They were introduced to adjust the Lviv coinage to Ruthenian monetary customs.

Ad 3. Ninety-five per cent of pure silver is a remarkable high fineness as for a country which was deprived of silver mines in this period. It perhaps refers to the eastern tradition which was still not able to accept a base silver that had dominated Latin Europe in the latter half of the fourteenth century.

The silver standards of Cracow groschen and of Polish kwartniks are unknown because of the lack of such a long series of tests. The former weighed probably 1/62 of Cracow mark (196.25g), i.e. 3.272g and they were close to the contemporary Bohemian groschen[122] so it is hardly possible they were of a doubled standard of Ruthenian silver coins of the first issue. But one needs to remind that the Cracow groschen were struck about 1368-1370 and they were for sure younger than the first Ruthenian silver coins. And nobody claims the latter derive from the former.

But the heavy Ruthenian silvers turned out to be independent of Prague groschen as well. The Castelins opinion about the 94 per cent silver fineness in groschen struck during the thirteen fifties is based upon the silver prices decrease between 1348 and 1356[123]. This is not supported by metal tests which show only a group of coins which increased in fineness from 85.4 to 87.5 per cent and decreased in weight instead. V. Pinta dates this group between the years 1348-55. Their actual fine silver content was not greater than 2.94 g, close to other groschen from the fifties . Kryzhanivskyi knows about it but he regards the old statement by Castelin as more credible. He has every right to think that, but to agree with him, one can ask where are these exceptionally valuable coins by Charles IV? And why a standard absent from hoards served as a pattern for Ruthenian coins, and not commonly circulating Bohemian groschen of lower standard did that? The changes of silver price were most probably caused not by changes of mint standard as Castelin thought, but by the bullion crisis and the Black Death in the mid-fourteenth century .

The weight standard of Polish kwartniks (figs. 5-7) was changed during the coinage as it was with Ruthenian silver coins, too. According to R. Kiersnowskis opinion, the earliest kwartniks might have been struck as kwarta, i.e. 1/96 part of Cracow mark in weight, that makes 2.04g of alloy. There are specimens that meet this weight[126], unfortunately, their metal was never examined with modern methods. However, the original identity of the silver standard between Polish kwartniks and heavier Ruthenian silver coins (which, in my opinion, were also called officially kwartniks: see the Sudova Vishnia charter from 1368) seems still to be probable. The time both issues were initiated is difficult to determine, it was most probably c. 1366 but perhaps it is better to say more generally about the mid-sixties of the fourteenth century.

The monetary reform carried out c. 1368 changed the Ruthenian silver standard to adjust it to the traditional monetary system of Red Ruthenia based on Tartar dirhams and clipped groschen (the Ruthenian grossi). And, at the same time, the coins, despite their lower intrinsic value, were officially declared as a half of Prague groschen and called the old name of Ruthenian grossi. In other words, Ruthenian silver coins failed to serve the purpose of a full-value coinage and this role passed to Prague groschen. Like the Polish kwartniks, Ruthenian grossi became a coinage with a share of added value and they were supported by copper pulos as a small coinage.

Ad 4. The opinion about a complete lack of coinage in Ruthenia in the fifties is unjustified. There were clipped Prague groschen in circulation there, and there was no urgent need to strike royal coins for merchants and artisans habit. The king struck money only if he had realized a possibility to make a profit from the coinage. King Casimir was the most fiscally-oriented Polish ruler in the late middle ages[127]. And the rapid debasement of Polish and Ruthenian coinages of kwartnik or grosso standards, between their beginning c. 1366 and the kings death in 1370, proves this clearly.

It was Ryszard Kiersnowski who observed that Polish kwartnik (quartensis or quartarius in Latin) was a standard created independently of the Prague groschen[128]. Despite that, it is regarded as improbable that King Casimir created in the mid-sixties this new Polish coin as a standard which was more valuable than a half of the current Prague groschen standard. Knowing that the southern and western parts of the Kingdom of Poland, i.e. the provinces of Great Poland, Cracow and Sandomierz were dominated by Prague groschen, one can guess that such a coinage would not be profitable for the king. But it is clear for us and it was not so for the kings advisors and perhaps the idea was more sophisticated that it looks for us. There were two main axes of trade in the Kingdom then: between the Black Sea and middle Germany and between the Baltic and Hungary . Groschen, i.e. the heavy silver standard expanded from Bohemia. But both on the Baltic and on the Black Sea coasts lower value standards like light grossi or sterlings were in use. Probably in 1364 or slightly earlier Grand Master Winrich of Prussia tried to move Prussia from the light standard zone to the heavy one, and introduced a large groschen called halbscoter (fig. 8) and its farthing (vierchen). The grand masters efforts failed and eventually in 1380 the Teutonic Knights chose the light standard called shilling there.

King Casimir did the opposite: soon after the Prussian reform, he chose the light grosso standard as the basis to unite many regional monetary systems of his realm. And probably Duke Siemowit of Mazovia followed him in the kwartnik coinage as his vassal and a subject of the Polish Crown (figs. 9-10). The king did it perhaps aiming at making the Baltic and Pontic trades the main directions of Polish commerce and, what is probably even more important, at making the Polish monetary system independent of the king of Bohemia and his financial needs. But without home silver ores this idea had only a little chance to be successful. After a couple of years the king decided to devaluate kwartniks, both in Poland and in Ruthenia, and to subordinate the whole monetary system of both countries to the Prague groschen. The new idea was to create the Cracow groschen as a Polish equivalent of Prague groschen, just like it was done in Prussia, to replace the Bohemian currency from circulation. It was probably the kings sudden death that broke this reform. And paradoxically, the first stage of the reform turned out to be more durable: the kwartnik, called later the greater kwartnik or the half-groschen, remained the main standard of the Kingdom of Poland, together with Ruthenia, till 1526. And it became the basis of the Polish groschen, a money of account that made Polish currency a unique combination of a light grosso and heavy groschen traditions.

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Abbreviations

CN = Cercetari Numismatice

JNG = Jahrbuch fr Numismatik und Geldgeschichte

NE-Moscow = Numizmatika i Epigrafika (Moscow)

NiS-Kiev = Numizmatika i Sfragistika (Kiev)

NS-MNO = Numizmaticheskii Sbornik Moskovskago Numizmaticheskago Obshchestva

NS = Numismatick Sbornk

NZ = Numismatische Zeitschrift

RIN = Rivista Italiana di Numismatica e Scienze Affini

SNM-Prague = Sbornk Nrodnho Muzea v Praze

TMO = Trudy Moskovskago Numizmaticheskago Obshchestva

VMU = Vestnik Moskovskogo Universiteta

WN = Wiadomoci Numizmatyczne

WNA = Wiadomoci Numizmatyczno-Archeologiczne

ZN = Zapiski Numizmatyczne

ZNOIRAO = Zapiski Numizmaticheskago Otdieleniia Imperatorskago Russkago Arkheologicheskago Obshchestva

Captions

Map. The Kingdom of Ruthenia in the fourteenth century.

1. Ruthenia, Casimir III the Great, silver coin (kwartnik), Lviv mint, c. 1366-8; 20.4 mm, 1.76g (Cracow, National Museum; T. Kakowskis files).

2. Ruthenia, Casimir III the Great, debased silver coin (grosso), Lviv mint, c. 1368-70; 20.5 mm, 1.20g (Warsaw, National Museum, no 7988 NPO).

3. Ruthenia, Casimir III the Great, copper coin (pulo), Lviv mint, c. 1368-70; 16.8 mm, 1.23g (Cracow, National Museum; photo A. Bros, T. Kakowskis files).

4. Poland, Casimir III the Great, Cracow groschen, Cracow mint, c. 1368-70; 3.22g (Niewitecki collection, Poznaski Dom Aukcyjny Podlaski Gabinet Numizmatyczny 9:121).

5. Poland, Casimir III the Great, kwartnik, Pozna or Kalisz mint, c. 1366-68; 1.76g (Westflische Auktionsgesellschaft 41:2534).

6. Poland, Casimir III the Great, kwartnik, Cracow mint, c. 1366-68; 1.64g (Westfalische Auktionsgesellschaft 41:2535).

7. Poland, Casimir III the Great, debased kwartnik, Cracow mint, c. 1368-70; 1.28g (Warszawskie Centrum Numizmatyczne, 34:76).

8. Prussia, Grand Master Winrich von Kniprode, halbscoter, c. 1364-79; 2.89g (Warszawskie Centrum Numizmatyczne, 34:138).

9. Mazovia, Siemowit III, silver kwartnik, uncertain mint, ex 1847 Lubonia hoard (drawing by K. Beyer, coin was burnt in Warsaw in 1944).

10. Mazovia, Siemowit III, silver kwartnik, uncertain mint, found loosely in the Poltva river in Lviv before 1846 (drawing by K. Beyer, coin was lost).