Fake cast florins from Kezlev

Abstract

It is not for the first century already, that the composition of the monetary circulation of the Crimean Khanate in different periods of its history has been studied. As a result was developed an objective and largely consistent scheme of attribution and dating of its coins. But on the territory of the Khanate were not developed only local issues. Coins of the Ottomans, Moscow state, as well as of European rulers came in abundance on its lands, including and colonial coinage. Evidence of their active use has been preserved in the materials of Kadiasker books. Those books give information about the banknotes, their fluctuations and their rates against the Crimean and Ottoman currencies. However, there is hardly any reason to believe that we know everything about those means of payment. Indeed, the problem of circulation of both, imported and counterfeit coins made in the Crimean Khanate, has not still been properly studied. We believe that the issue of replicas was due to the high demand for large silver coins both on the territory of the Crimean Khanate and beyond, on the lands of the Moscow state. The problem was complicated by the fact that the Crimean khans, before Shahin Giray, could not mint money of great dignity because of the restrictions, imposed on their vassals by the Ottoman sultans. At the same time, the Crimea was an important element of the “Turkish path”, through which silver entered the Moscow state. Thus, the deficit of a large coin in it was very noticeable. In turn, the movement of large volumes of precious metal across the territory of the khanate facilitated the task of importing or producing on the spot fake coins that came to end consumers along with real money. And, indeed, we were able to identify cast imitations of the florins of Zwolle and the county of Oldenburg. They were discovered on the territory of medieval Kezlev. Judged by the primitiveness of technology and low quality of products, we believe that these replicas could not be delivered to the peninsula. Most likely, we should talk about local imitations. We give an affirmative answer to the question of the possibility of issuing replicas of a European coin on the territory of the Crimean Khanate.

Keywords

• numismatics
• economy
• crimean khanate
• fake coins