Coin Hoard of Moldovan Copper Coins Found in the Belgorod Fortress on the Dniester River (Ukraine) / Skarb miedzianych monet mołdawskich znaleziony na terenie twierdzy Białogród nad Dniestrem (Ukraina)

Abstract

In this article we discuss a coin hoard found in the Belgorod fortress on the Dniester River (Ukraine). It was detected during archaeological investigations led by L.D. Dmitrov in 1946. It was found outside the fortress, on its glacis, as part of excavation site “A”. Until recently the hoard was unknown in the numismatic literature. At the moment of discovery, the hoard was composed of 34 coins (according to excavation diary kept in the archive of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine). Today, only 33 coins are kept in the collection of the Institute of Archaeology. All of them are divisional copper coins of the Moldovan prince Alexander I, minted 1425–1430. Since the hoard can be classified as a small pouch of money of the same type – copper puls – it is difficult to set the period when it was lost or hidden. Most probably, this could have occurred either soon after the issue of the coins, at the end of the reign of Alexander I, or later, during the reign of his sons, Ilyash I in 1432–1433, or even Stephen II in 1433–1435.