The appearance of a minted metal coin is an important milestone in the history of any state. This is evidence that this society has achieved a high degree of economic and social development.
The first Russian coins
At the end of the 10th century in Kievan Rus, the minting of own gold and silver coins begins. The first Russian coins were called "coin-throwers" and "pieces of silver." The coins depicted the Grand Duke of Kiev and a kind of state emblem in the shape of a trident, the so-called sign of the Rurikovich. The inscription on the coins of Prince Vladimir (980 - 1015) read: "Vladimir is on the table, and behold his silver", which means: "Vladimir is on the throne, and this is his money." Thus, for a long time in Russia the word "silver" - "silver" was equivalent to the concept of money.
The first coins were primitive both in technique and in design. The art of coin minting improved with each century, the engraving improved, the image became more realistic, and due to the increase in the coin field, the compositional capabilities of carvers expanded. And it is no accident that many of the memorial coins are attributed to works of art of small forms.
The first Moscow coins
In Moscow, for the first time, minted money appeared during the reign of Dmitry Donskoy in the second half of the 14th century. On the coins there was an embossed inscription "Seal of the Great Prince Dmitry". These coins look like small thin silver jagged scales. Also, on coins, sometimes the images of a rooster or a warrior were minted with an ax and a saber in different hands, and in the 14th century a warrior with a spear on horseback was minted on coins.
During the reign of Ivan the Third, the inscription "Ivan the Great Prince and the ruler of all Russia" appeared on the coins. And although Ivan the Third was sure that there should be Russian gold in the earth, he had to mint gold coins (the so-called "Ugric gold coins") from foreign, imported gold.
Ivan the Terrible established the Order of Stone Affairs, which led the search for gold and silver ores. Towards the end of the 15th century, Russian people began to develop Perm land and the slopes of the Ural Mountains, but all searches for gold here were unsuccessful. They were especially active in the region of the Pechora River, where copper and silver ores were found, but not gold.
