Found a treasure of ancient coins of Ukraine.

[Gusev]

In the Zhytomyr region in September 2020, a fisherman accidentally made a discovery of national importance - he found 32 silver coins from the times of Vladimir the Great. This is the first such find in the past 150 years.
On silver coins dating from 1000-1019, there are images of the Kiev prince, and on the reverse side there is a princely sign - a trident for Vladimir the Great and two-teeth for Svyatopolk. Such coins were minted from silver Arab coins - dirhams.
Among the coins of Prince Vladimir the Great, there are previously unknown unique stamps. There are also all three possible types of silver coins that were minted during the time of Svyatopolk during 1016-1019.

The first coins of ancient Ukraine began to be minted by Volodymyr the Great at the end of the 10th century, when there was a global crisis in Europe and the Arab dirhams disappeared, which at that time played the role of the euro or dollar, conventionally speaking the world currency. Vladimir felt that the market needed to be filled with small coins, and began minting his own pieces of silver.

[Figleaf]

Great find! As you say, a treasure of national interest, but also a great chance to educate e.g. school children on the origin and place in history of their country.

Kyiv, on the Dnieper was always of importance to long range merchants. Even in antiquity, it was part of the Eastern branch of the amber road. This explains how in the times of Byzantium, Scandinavians banished from their territories could congregate there and eventually start their own state.

The Kievan Rus coins were either imitations of Islamic dirhems or based on coins of Byzantium, until they started their own series. The first were zlatnik (gold piece), based on the Byzantine nomisma, soon followed by a coin called srebrenik (silver piece).

This made the Kievan Rus a Christian frontier state where to the South and East the dirhems were used, while to the North and West, German silver reigned. At this time, Russia's own metallic money was silver ingots, known as grivna. As a trading city, part of Kyiv's wealth came from smelting Venetian ingots and recasting them as ingots on the standard of Lithuania, Novgorod or its own standard. The word grivna is the root of the name of the present Ukrainian currency, hryvnia.

The period of early money came to an end with the Mongol invasion.

Peter

[Gusev]

Thank you Peter for the addition.
One remark - the word "Russia / Russian Empire" appeared only at the beginning of the 18th century during the reign of Tsar Peter.
Before that there was the Moscow kingdom. By the way, the city of Moscow was founded by the Kiev prince Yuri Dolgoruky in the 12th century.
Russians today are rewriting their own history. A monument to the Kiev prince Vladimir the Great was recently erected in Moscow.
Now it is necessary to rename Russian rubles into hryvnia and declare Kiev the capital of Russia.

[Figleaf]

You are quite right, Igor. Russia hadn't been invented yet. The map I attach gives an idea of the situation after the Mongol invasion, but I couldn't find an earlier one.

What I find interesting is the financial and religious split between Islam/the Khalifates and Christianity/Byzantium and Kiev opting clearly for the latter. In Western European schools, the only aspect of this break that might possibly be discussed is the siege of Vienna and the role of prince Eugène of Savoy. The Russian struggle with the Ottoman empire was much longer and far more bloody.

Peter