15TH CENTURY MOSCOW COIN HOARD FOUND

A hoard of over 2,600 silver coins were found during rescue excavations in Kolomna, the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute of Archaeology announced in a statement late last week, marking it the the largest hoard of silver coins minted in the second and third decades of the 15th century ever found.

Many of the coins are dengi of the Grand Princes Vasily I Dmitriyevich (1389-1425) and Vasily II Vasilyevich "the Blind" (1425-1462), while there is a near-complete absence of coins minted by appanage princes.

The large sum has led archaeologists to conclude that its owner had been wealthy, likely belonging to the upper class at the time.

As the latest coins in the hoard date to the second half of the 1420s, researchers theorize that the owner may have fallen victim to one of the epidemics that swept through Russia between 1425-1427.

Notably, a significant number of the coins from Dmitriyevich's reign were minted in Kolomna itself and bear the likeness of a flying bird, a rarity in such coins found in other regions of Russia.

Coin of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich, minted in Moscow

Within the hoard, researchers discovered over 350 previously unknown varieties of Kolomna coins, as well as other types of coins absent from collections displayed at many of Russia's museums.

The hoard also allows for the identification of the final Kolomna coins issued with the bird's likeness, dating to the end of Dmitriyevich's reign.

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