Konstantin Khromov
There is an increased interest
shown for the Dzhuchid numismatics today (coins of the Golden Horde). At the same time the
problem of attributing and defining the degree of rarity of the coins remains undecided.
It caused by the absence of the complete catalogue on this topic for the time being. Some
existing works do not provide the complete objective information about these coins and
reflect the state of the numismatic science by the moment they have been written. The most
of works classify the Dzhuchid coins on the basis of chronological and geographical
principles of classification (more precise definition of the dates of governing of
individual khans, quantity and geographical location of the coining centers, dependence of
these centers on certain khans in the various periods of the Golden Horde history etc.)
There is a quite different
scheme of coins classification proposed you in this article. Such a scheme may be used for
other sections of numismatics. Equally with the geographical and chronological principles
of classification there is a notion of classification by economical principles introduced.
This subdivides the coins into the strict groups subject to the information containing at
the coins themselves. Since the chronological and geographical questions are worked out
completely enough in the most of works, it is no use paying them special attention. As for
the economical principles of classification, it is worth mentioning that there had already
been the attempts of such coins subdivision but they were not duly developed (1). The
proposed scheme of the Dzhuchid coins classification by the economical principles is as
follows:
All the known by the present
time coins of the Golden Horde may be divided by the completeness of containing
information into 6 groups:
1. Dated coins, with the
indication of the place of coining and the governor's name (khan) by means of which this
emission was carried out.
2. Undated coins, with the
indication of the place of coining and the governor's name (khan) by means of which this
emission was carried out.
3. Dated coins, anonymous, with
the indication of the place of coining, emitted by means of towns indicated in the legends
of these coins.
4. Undated coins, anonymous,
with the indication of the place of coining, also related to the emissions by means of
town communities or other municipality bodies.
5. Undated coins, anonymous,
without the indication of the place of emission and containing some legend information
(mottoes, dicta) directly or indirectly indicating to the emittant by means of which this
emission was carried out.
6. Undated coins, unepigraphed,
containing on one or both sides the images also indicating to the emittant by means of
which this emission was carried out.
The coins of 5th and 6th
classification groups represent the most numerous and the less amenable to classification
category of the Dzhuchid coins.
To classify the coins of 3rd,
4th, 5th, 6th groups, the principles of chronological succession in changing of governing
khans are not applicable. On my opinion, the coins of the identical type, minted in the
same town but in different years under the governing of different khans which do not have
direct or indirect indication to the belonging to the khan's coining, should be considered
in the different chronological diapason, as for example the coins of Saray al-Dgadid or
Crimean coins.
The proposed scheme of coin
classification seems to be more complete by the information content and more responding to
the compliance of the numismatics as the economical science. |
