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400 THOMAS S. NOONANMiddle Volga—1 hoard and 1 separate findAzov steppe—1 coin. 70The list of hoards and finds does not necessarily correspond to the totalnumber of coins: Potin, unfortunately, has not included these numbers withhis data. Nevertheless, his figures give a fairly clear picture of denier circulationin pre-Mongol Rus'. The vast majority of deniers were deposited inthe Novgorod lands, where they entered Rus', or in the surrounding Polotsk,Smolensk, and Rostov-Suzdal' lands. Relatively few deniers ever reachedthe southern Rus' lands or the non-Slavic territories beyond. While the reasonsare beyond the scope of this study, it would appear that the cessationof dirham imports led the northwestern Rus' lands to hoard the silver coinsreaching Rus' via the Baltic. The pressures to hoard scarce silver coinsprobably intensified as far fewer deniers reached Rus' in comparison withdirhams (also, the denier usually weighed much less than the dirham).Deniers were apparently important in Novgorod's Baltic trade, and Novgoroddeliberately sought to keep as many of them as possible.Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that so few deniers everreached Kiev and vicinity. Of the five finds in Kiev, the two hoards containingGerman coins are reportedly spurious and should be discounted. 71The Venetian coins date to the first part of the thirteenth century and aremost probably linked with Kiev's Black Sea commerce. 72 We are left withthree authentic and relevant finds, containing a total of 7 deniers, from Kievitself. Surprisingly, many more deniers have been uncovered in greaterKiev, in two eleventh-century denier hoards—one from Cherkasy, south ofKiev along the Dnieper, 73 and one from the Oster area, northeast of Kiev. 74Unfortunately, little information is available about either hoard: we do notknow how large they are or when they were deposited. We should alsoconsider the 41 deniers found with the Denysy hoard, 75 and perhaps the 23deniers allegedly part of the Khabrivka hoard. 76In assessing Kiev's monetary history, one is tempted to place deniers inthe same category as Byzantine coins. One major difference must be recognized,however. The denier played a very real role in the trade of northernRus'. The reason so few deniers reached Kiev is precisely that the denierwas highly valued in the Novgorod lands. By contrast, Byzantine coins70717273747576Potin, Drevniaia Rus', p. 47.Appendix C, no. 2.Appendix C, no. 3.Appendix C, no. 6.Appendix C, no. 7.Appendix C, no. 10.AppendixC.no. 11.