HARVARD UKRAINIAN STUDIES - See also - Harvard University

MONETARY HISTORY OF KIEV IN THE PRE-MONGOL PERIOD 397Islamic world put a gradual end to the export of dirhams to Eastern Europe.The only evidence of new Islamic money coming to Kiev after 955 is in thehuge Denysy hoard deposited ca. 1020, but that hoard cannot be consideredconclusive evidence that dirhams reached the Kiev area after 955 with anyregularity.Byzantine CoinsIn terms of Kiev's monetary history, Byzantine coins present a great contrastto Islamic dirhams. Byzantine coins made of copper/bronze, gold, andsilver were all found in early Kiev, unlike their Islamic counterparts, whichwere almost all silver dirhams. While our data about some finds from Kievand vicinity is incomplete, and the number of coins in some finds must beestimated, there are about 116 Byzantine coins from Kiev whose metal hasbeen noted. Of these, 91 (or 78.4 percent) were copper or bronze, 21 (or18.1 percent) were gold, and only 4 (or 3.4 percent) were silver. This patternalso prevails among the Byzantine finds from greater Kiev, where atotal of around 35 coins has been found: of these, 21 (or 60 percent) werecopper or bronze, 10 (or 28.6 percent) were gold, and only 4 (or 11.4 percent)were silver miliaresia. So Byzantine coins reaching Kiev were mostlikely to be the cheaper copper or bronze coins or, failing that, the far moreexpensive gold coins.A second major difference between the Byzantine and Islamic coinsfrom Kiev and vicinity concerns quantity. Whereas the nine dirham hoardsfrom Kiev totaled around 17,000 dirhams, the thirty-four Byzantine findsfrom Kiev contained around 161 coins. Twenty-three finds from the greaterKiev region yielded 38 Byzantine coins. In other words, fifty-seven findscontain a total of only 200 or so Byzantine coins. Furthermore, amongthese fifty-seven there are only three definite hoards: a hoard containing atleast nine copper coins was found in 1888; 62 fifteen solidi were part of acoin-treasure hoard discovered in 1899; 63 and a hoard of 37 copper coinswas unearthed in 1908. 64 No confirmed hoards of Byzantine coins originatedin greater Kiev. Compared with dirhams, only a minuscule numberof Byzantine coins ever reached Kiev.A third and final comparison of the Byzantine and Islamic coins has todo with the timespan during which they reached Kiev and vicinity. Islamicdirhams, we know, were brought to Kiev primarily during the first half of626364AppendixB.no.il.Appendix B, no. 17.Appendix B., no. 19.