Chapter 2. Crimean Mint (Kyrym).

МД-8 

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The initial name of the Crimean peninsula was Tavrika after its ancient inhabitants of Tauris. Mongols conquered the peninsula in 1239 and together with the Dnieper-Dniester have made it one of the 14 Ulus of the Golden Horde. Soon, in the south-eastern part of the peninsula, 25 km from Feodosia in the valley of the river Tchuruk Su was built capital of Ulus called Kyrym or Crimea. It is believed that the name is derived from the Turkic word =   = 

kirim = moat — because that was how the Turkic population of the peninsula called the isthmus separating the peninsula from the «mainland.» Gradually the name of the capital of the ulus passed on the entire peninsula. The foreign documents of the time — the Persian and European ones tell that the Crimea was called Solkhat.

Batu Khan gave Crimean Ulus to his brother Tebaliah, the grandfather of Nogai. The famous subsequent rulers of Crimea were Tuk-Timur, his son Uran-Timur, Tuluk-Timur and others, but the exact dates of their governing are not known.

Apparently immediately after the construction of the Crimea the Mint was also created, which was the second one to mint silver coins after the Bulgar Mint.

 

Review of the Crimean Mint studies

Of the Golden Horde period

 

Certain types of silver and copper coins of the Crimean Mint were published in the papers of the leading figures in the Mongol Numismatics of the XIX century, but the first attempt to compile a chronological list of the issuers of the capital of the Crimean Ulus and the coins was made in 1930 (Likhachev, 1930, p.114-119) . In the list there were 14 Juchi Khans. Among them — four in the XIII century and 5 Khans in the XIV and XV centuries. For the second half of the XIII century N.P. Likhachev brought pictures of 4 silver types of coins: without the release date, attributabled to the Temnik Nogai mintage (Likhachev, 1930, p.114 pic.90a, b, c), coinage of 665, 683 and 686 years with the names of Khans Mangu-Timur (ibid, p.115 pic.93), Tuda-Mengu (ibid, p.116 pic.95) and Tula-Buga (ibid, p.117 pic.96 and 97), respectively. At the same time he gives pictures of 2 other types of copper coins – without the date with a stirrup – like tamgha, as the silver coins of «Nogai» (ibid, p.114 pic.90d-f) and the pool of Mengu-Timur of 674 AH (Ibid, p.116 pic.94).

Over the next half century no other types of coins were described on the Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period, no other attempts to systematize Mongol coinage of Crimea were made.

In 1986, on a scientific seminar in Azov I read a report on the early-dzhuchid coinage of Crimea (Lebedev, 1986, p.3), which served as the basis for the collection of articles in Kishinev (Lebedev, 1990, p.139-156), which then was re-published in English without my knowledge (Lebedev, 2002, p.1422).

In 1991-1992 I prepared 5 articles entitled «Towards Crimean numismatics of the Golden Age», where all the Crimean coins of the middle of the XIII century – the beginning of the XV century are observed. I also described a series of unreleased types of coins, found in many private collections in the Crimea and some other cities of the USSR. The articles were sent to the editor of the collection of the Moscow Numismatic Society, where they gradually saw the light in 1994-2002. (Lebedev. 1994, p.126-134, 1996, pp.62-67, 2000, p.52-57, 2002, p.139-149).

A magazine version of the Crimean dzhuchid coins catalogue was made in 2000 based on these 5 articles. It was published in 3 issues of the Kiev magazine «Numismatics and Faleristics» in 2000  (Lebedev, 2000 № 1 p.19-23; № 2 .32-35; № 3 p.10-14) ..

In the late 1990’s Konstantin Khromov, then young Kiev numismatist, began to publish his first small notes on the Crimean numismatics (Khromov, 1999 № 3 p.20-23 number 4, p.44-45, 2000 № 1 p.44-45). After studying these publications I prepared the 2nd revised edition of the Crimean Coins Catalogue, which was published in 2000 in Odessa (Lebedev, 2000, issue 2).

Effective detectors that became available repeatedly increased the number of medieval coins found in the land of the Crimea and the neighboring areas of medieval coins. With the time the amount inevitably turned into quality and soon a number of previously unknown coins of Golden Crimea were identified, including the earliest issues (Khromov, Nastich, 2003 p.77-79; Khromov, 2004 I, p.15-17, he, 2004II, p.11-12). Along with the coins of previously unknown types, significantly increased the number of copies of the known types. For example, before a very rare type of silver Yarmak of the times of Khan Berke that in the late twentieth century counted only 4 already in 2005 counted 11 and all the copies were in Khromov’s possession.

Numerous new coin material allowed K.K. Khromov begin to build a new modern catalogue of Crimean Coins (only silver). In 2007 he published the first part of the new catalogue (Khromov, 2007, p.4-54).

The following description of silver and copper coins of the Crimea will be based on my catalogue of 2000, and published by K.K. Khromov Part I of the new directory.

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Silver coin stamp of Crimea of the imperial period (mid-XIII c.).

 

Early Crimean coins are not dated and are either with the names of the rulers of the Crimean ulus or generally anonymous. Therefore, the sequence of their classification is now quite conventional.

1. Timir-Tooka (Buca?) Kyrym, Yarmak. / Ind. (ET-1 copy, and private coll.-6 copies.). Weight: 1.62, 1.77, 1.91, 1.97, 2.06, 2.07. Pic.41.1a’s. Photo 1.1a-e. (Khromov, 2007, p.8-9, № № 001-006).

Obverse: in the triple circle, middle is dotted, in 3 lines:

= by order of Timur-Tuka (Buca). Crimean Yarmak [..? ..]. ㅤ The last word is not read, besides, it is different on different copies:

 

Photo 1. Photos of early Crimean silver coins of the imperial period. Types 1-3.

Obverse: in the same cartouche in 3 lines: 

Be happy. Twelve of these — one Altun.

For the first time this type of coin has been found far from the Crimea — in the hoard of coins of Chagataid from Otrar in the Central Asia and was published in 1981 (Baipakov, Nastich, 1981 p.46 № 17, № 13 Picture 12). Twenty years later it turned out that the second copy of this coin with the same pair of dies of unknown origin is found in the Hermitage under the number 23144. Its image was published by K.K. Khromov in 2004, with the other 5 copies that became already known at that time (Khromov, 2004 I, pp.15-17).

In the same article, V.N. Nastich1981, describes together with this Crimean Yarmak, four types of silver coins of the times of Munke Kaan. They were also referred to the Crimean mintage (Baipakov, Nastich, 1981, pp.43-47, № № 13-16, fig.12 number 7 -10). While numismatists took the time to attribute these types of coins to the Mongol Crimean Mintage as they are not typical of the Crimean coinage and are not found in the Crimea, their precise attribution has only recently become known. A group of German authors published one of the marked coin types, well preserved, in which the place of production is definitely read:  =

Karakorum, mintage of the capital of the Mongol Empire (Heideman und ander, 2006, p.93-102).

2a, b. Anonymous undated edition, Crimea fraction ¼ Yarmak. 3 copies. (Private Call.). Weight: 0.43, 0.48, 0.52. (Khromov, Nastich, 2003, p.77-78; Khromov, 2004, p.15, photo 1.2; Khromov, 2007, p.9 № 007-008) 1. Picture 3.2 b., Scan 1.2a, b.

Obverse: option 2a. In linear circle:  =

= Amir, on the top and in the bottom — vignettes.

Reverse: in the circle:   = 

Ikyry / m, on the top and in the bottom — vignettes.

Option 2b. Both sides are the same as an obverse of the option 2a. (Obviously the coin was  minted with two stamps).

3. Khan Berke anonymous Yarmak, Crimea. 15 copies. (ET-2 SHM-1 private coll.-10 no information — 4). Weight: 1.75 edge, 2.0, 2.02, 2.03, 2.05 (2) 2.08 (2) 2.09, 2.10 (2) 2.15; 2.18. (Markov, 1905, p.179-186, 374-375; Likhachev, 1930, p.114 pic.90a-c.7; Lebedev, 1994, p.126-134; Khromov, 2007, p.10-12, № № 009-021). Picture 3.3. Scan 1.3a-g, n-Scan 2.3d.

Obverse: in the cartouche of triangular elements there is a legend in 3 lines:

The king of Islam, Nusrat al-Dunya wad-Din (the king of Muslims, protecting the peace and faith).

At a number of varieties the last syllable “in” does not fit on the third line and is transferred below, and on the coins, where it fits, at the bottom of the legend there was also a vignette.

Obverse: in the center there is an original Tamgha as a stirrup on its sides: Mintage / Crimean

Externally between the two circles there is a legend.

There is 1 copy with the same legends on both sides that are mirror executed (Khromov, 2007, 12, № 021), but without the distortion as considered the publisher of the variant (Scan 2.3p).

The catalogue of  K.K. Khromov stated that the circular legend of the obverse is not read. But this is not the case. More accurate to state that at this time there is no clear reading of this early round legend of the Crimean Yarmak. There were several published attempts to read the circle legends. The very first was proposed by V.V. Velyaminov-Zernov, the former owner of the two copies, which were bequeathed (along with the entire collection) to the Hermitage and are described in detail by A.K. Markov. V.V. Velyaminov-Zernov found this inscription corresponding to the initial conventional circular Koranic legend of the Kufic dirhams VIII-X centuries based on 33 verse of the IX surah. Absolute discrepancyof the Arab formulations of the circular legend of Yarmak and the Koranic legend was obvious to A.K. Markov who offered his reading – the beginning in Persian, the ending in Arabic:

 

=

Let this [..? ..] be blessed [..? ..] year ninety and six hundred.

Based on reading the date 690 AH — The first year of the reign of Khan Tokta and the original tamgha instead of the tamgha of the house of Batu, which was at all personal Crimean coins of Tokta, A.K. Markov took both the coin and the tamgha to the Temnik of Nogai. Historian-orientalist N.I. Veselovsky disagreed with the reading of the second half of the legend – the reading of the date and offered his interpretation:   =

eight hundred. (Veselovsky, 1922, p.54). N.P. Likhachev, examining in detail the reading of N.I. Veselovsky said: «The inscription is very difficult to read, which, in any case, is doubtful» (Likhachev, 1930, p.110, footnote 3).

S.A. Yanina on a conference in 1965 in Baku summarized the efforts of all her predecessors: «In the circular legend of the obverse we don’t read years «, and according to the set of external signs she said the coin was released at the end of the reign of Berke (Yanina, 1965 p.169). She considered the tamgha, placed on the coin as Berke’s personal tamgha, a prototype of the tamgha of the house of Batu.

While agreeing with the conclusions of S.A. Janina classifying the coins and tamghas, the author at a seminar in 1986 in Azov suggested reading in Persian the whole legend: ᅠ=

Blessed be this year of the Black Cow.

Discussing the report with the professor G.A. Fedorov-Davydov, he said: «Today it is the best of the proposed readings of the circular legends of this type of coins of the Crimea.» I also don’t think that the variant I proposed is the ultimate truth, and I look forward the attempts to read the legend. However, during the last quarter-century, no other readings of the legend have been proposed.

In the second half of the XIII century according to the Mongolian cycling calendar the year of the Black Cow falls on 1265, that is, the penultimate year of Berke’s ruling, that confirms the Yarmak’s mintage date calculated by S.A. Janina due to her studies of the indirect evidence. (In Mongolia in 1210 was adopted the Mongolian-Tibetan calendar system (Table 1). The beginning of its counting falls on 1027 of the European calendar. The years were combined in 12 year cycles, each of which had a specific name of the five elements or animals: wood — blue, fire-red, earth — yellow, iron — white, water — black. 5 such cycles were combined in 60-year-old circles. Every year in the 12-year cycle, was called with the names of the animals in such a sequence, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, chicken, dog, pig, mouse, cow, tiger. Thus, any specific date was marked by a number of the 60-year-old circle, by a suit of the 12-year cycle, and a name of the animal in this cycle. The number of the cycle was rarely indicated. It could be determined based on the supporting external data. In our case, we know that we are talking about the middle of XIII century, this is the IV circle 1207-1266 years, and the year of the black cow falls on the 59 year of the circle or 1265. Short Mongolian-Russian Dictionary 1947. Mongolian-Tibetan historical system. P.415-418).

Table 1

Mongolian-Tibetan historical calendar system

Circles

Order

animals

wood

fire

earth

iron

water

Europen

blue

red

yellow

white

black

I

1027-1086

Rabbit

1

13

25

37

49

II

1087-1146

Dragon

2

14

26

38

50

III

1147-1206

Snake

3

15

27

39

51

IV

1207-1266

Horse

4

16

28

40

52

V

1267-1326

Sheep

5

17

29

41

53

VI

1327-1386

Monkey

6

18

30

42

54

VII

1387-1146

Chicken

7

19

31

43

55

VIII

1447-1506

Dog

8

20

32

44

56

IX

1507-1566

Pig

9

21

33

45

57

X

1567-1626

Mouse

10

22

34

46

58

XI

1627-1686

Cow

11

23

35

47

59

XII

1687-1746

Tiger

12

24

36

48

60

 

Hermitage employees M.B. Severova and A.A. Ivanov took this reading very critically. They admitted the lack of epigraphic exaggeration — the main scourge of the previous versions, excellent coincidence of the date of the official in Mongolia in XIII century cycling calendar with the date that gave S.A. Janina, they had a number of comments in the grammatical and literary fields. For example, the adjective black in Persian language should be placed after the determinate word (the cow), and not before, the word sour = bull from the word combination sourmadah = cow is usually used in the astral sense (Taurus) and the word sala = year usually requires the numeral behind it.

But the emergence of the Persian language in the Golden Horde with mostly Kipchak and Turkic populations and quantitatively insignificant Mongol ruling elite, apparently, is not the result of the direct influence of Iran (also Mongol rule at the time), but the mass migration of the artisans from Khorezm to the newly erected Volga cities, North Caucasus and Crimea. Khorezm language that belonged to the family the Iranian languages, at that time was under Turkization that ended by the turn of XIV-XV centuries. In Turkic languages, the adjective precedes the determinate word. One may assume a lower severity of the other purely Persian rules in that transitional time for the language. You can not completely disregard the trivial reason such as the lack of literacy of the carvers of the punches, which led to numerous mistakes in the legends and the dates of the coins of medieval Islam (Kochnev, 1990, p.38-40).

Yet the question of reading this type of circular legend on Crimean Yarmaks cannot be considered solved until the time when the scientists will find the reading that will satisfy all numismatists and historians.

4. Anonymous undated fraction ¼ Yarmak of the time of Berke. 1 copy. (Private coll.). Weight 0.38 chipped. (Khromov, 2004 II, p.12 Photo 1; Khromov, 2007, p.12 № 022). Pic 3.4, Scan 2.4.

Obverse: in a double circle: =[Nusrat] ad-Dunya wad-Din = [Protection] Peace and Faith.

Photo 2. Photos of the anonymous Yarmak of the time of Berke, type 3 (continued) and ¼ fraction, type 4. 

 

 

Reverse: in the center of a double circle there is tamgha like on the coin №3,  the right side is broken where it had to say [Stamp] to the left from the Crimean tamgha. Near the bridge of the tamgha there is a multibeam asterisk.

These are all the known silver coins of the Crimea of the early imperial period with the names or titles of local emirs or the anonymous ones. All of the following types of Crimean silver coins released from the Mongol Golden Horde Empire are registered.

 

Metrology

 

The Crimean Mintage of the imperial period has 4 types of silver coins; however, the identified copies are enough to build a weight histogram with the step of 0.1 g (pic. 42).

 

Pic.42. Weighted histogram of silver coins of the Crimean early (imperial) period. 

The diagram shows that the weight of the main denomination of yarmak is 2.1 g.  Beside yarmak, its fractions ¼ were also in circulation. According to the legend of the first type, yarmak itself was 1/12 of altun — the golden coin. Golden coins of the Crimean coinage are not known and, probably some foreign coin of the middle of the XIII century was one of the international currencies of the time. Yarmak publishers of this type did not express their opinion on the matter, but it was made in the article of P.N. Petrov. In his view, the term altun in the legend of this yarmak corresponds  to the chagatai dinar of the imperial period, weighing 1 calico that is equal to 4.46 g and the constant 583 hallmark (Simpson, 2004, p.225-231).

 

References

 

Baipakov K.M., Nastich V.M., 1981. Hoard of silver coins and things XIII century from Otrar / / Kazakhstan in the feudal era. Alma-Ata, p.46, description 17, № 13 Picture 12.

N.I. Veselovsky, 1922. Khan from the temniks of the Golden Horde and his time / / Proceedings of the Russian Academy of Sciences in the department of History and Philology. V.XIII, VIII series. Petrograd, p.54.

Kochnev V.D., 1990. Errors on the Karakhanids coins as a source study problem / / Bartoldovsie readings 1990 Abstracts. M., p.38-40.

Lebedev V.P., 1986. Overview of the early dzhuchid coinage of the Crimea / / The program of scientific-practical seminar «Northern Black Sea and the Volga region in the relationship between East and West in the XII-XVI centuries.». Azov, p.3.

Lebedev V.P., 1990. Symbols and language f the Crimean coins of the Golden Horde period / / Numismatic research on the history of South-East Europe. Kishinev, p. 139-156.

Lebedev V.P., 1994 The Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period. About tamgha and coins of Khan Nogai / / INR Numismatic Collection, Vol. 3, p.126-134. M.

Lebedev V.P., 1996. The Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period. Crimean yarmaks — silver legitimate to circulation / / INR Numismatic Collection, No.6, pp.62-67. M.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. The Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period. The world around us on the coin images of the Crimean coinage XIII-XIV centuries. / / Numismatic Collection INR issue 7 p.52-57. M.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. The Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period. Horse archer — the power of the Crimea (Coins Tokta and Uzbek times) / / Numismatic Collection INR issue 7 p.58-64. M.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. Body of the Crimean coins in the Golden Horde (the middle of the XIII the end of the XV centuries) / /  Numizmatika Faleristics, № 1, p.19-23. Kiev.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. Body of the Crimean coins in the Golden Horde II. Anonymous mintage of the XIII-XIV centuries and the coins of Uzbek (1313-1339) / / Numizmatika Faleristics, № 2, p.32-35. Kiev.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. Body of the Crimean coins in the Golden Horde III. Coins of Toktamysh time, his rivals and successors (1375-1430) / / Numizmatika Faleristics, № 3, p.10-14. Kiev.

Lebedev V.P., 2000. Catalogue of the Crimean coins of the Golden Horde (middle XIII beginning XV) / / Bulletin of the Odessa Museum of Numismatics, Vol. Number 2. Odessa.

Lebedev V.P., 2002. The Crimean numismatics of the Golden Horde period. 5. «May the Crimeabe away from disasters» (coins late XIV-beginning XV centuries / / Numismatic Collection INR ed.9 p.139-149. M.

N.P. Likhachev, 1930. Materials for the history of Russian and Byzantine sphragistics. Tamgha / / Proceedings of the Palaeography museum. No. II. L. p.91-169.

Markov A.K., 1905. About the coins of Khan Nogai. Addition to the article / / TMNO V.III issue 2. Moscow, 179-186, 374-375.

Mongolian-Tibetan system of the calendar. Short Mongolian-Russian dictionary. 1947, p.416 et seq. M.

Petrov, P.N., 2004. Mongolian coinage-weight system and rationalization in Central Asia in the XIII century. / / DDA no. III, p.225-231. Nizhny Novgorod.

Khromov K.K., 1999. A few notes on the Golden Horde numismatics of Crimea. Crimean coins of Tula-Booga (1287-1291), clarification of the same type of copper coin in Crimea XIII. / / I Numizmatika Faleristics, № 3, p.20-23. Kiev.

Khromov K.K., 1999. Coins of Solkhat / /  Numizmatika Faleristics, № 4, p.43-46. Kiev.

Khromov K.K., 2000. Notes on the Golden Horde numismatics of Crimea (Refinement of the date of the Crimean dirham Tokty704 AH (about 1304) / / Numizmatika Faleristics, № 1, p.44-45.

Khromov K.K., 2004 I. New data on silver mintage of the Crimean coins of the early Golden Horde period / / Numismatics, July (5), pp.15-17. M.

Khromov K.K., 2004 II. A new variant of the faction of yarmak of the Crimean emirs; fraction of yarmak of Khan Berke ruling / / Eastern Numismatics in Ukraine. Part I. Juchids Coins XIII-XV centuries. P.11-12. Kiev.

Khromov K.K., 2007. Coins of the western part of Jochi Ulus. Part I. Crimean yarmaks. Section 1. Silver coins minted before the reign of Toktu / / Eastern Numismatics in Ukraine. Part II. Coins Juchids and neighboring states. C.4-54. Kiev.

Khromov K.K. Nastich V.N., 2003. Two rare types of silver Crimean coins of the Golden Period / / Abstracts of papers and communications XI INC, p.77-79. St. Petersburg.

Yanina, S.A., 1965. About the coins attributed to Khan Nogai mintage / / Proceedings of the session devoted to the end of 1964 Abstracts. Baku, p.169.

Heideman S., Kelzenberg H., Erdenbat U., Pohl E., 2006. The First Documentary Evidence for Qara Qorum from the Yea 635/1237-8 / / Zeitschrift fur Archäologie Außereuropäischer Kulturen. 1.

Lebedev V.P., 2002/1422-1423. Symbols and Language of Coins of Krim from the Golden Horde Period / / As-Sikka  ᅠv.4.

K. Khromov, 2000. The early mongol coins of the Crimea // ONS Newsletters. № 162, p.17.

 

 

 

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