Pages: 319-327

The author discusses controversial issues of minting technology and organization of cast bronze emissions in Byzantine Cherson. A study of molds and coins produced with their help, it was found that the monetary emission in Cherson employed Chinese mass casting technology — the so-called «money tree». This technology was not known to the Roman Empire and its neighboring countries. It could be borrowed as a result of indirect contacts between Eurasian peoples involved in trade exchanges along the Silk Road. This technology allowed to organize large-scale emissions. Transition to this new technology indicates to the high demand for the means of payment in the early medieval Taurica, which, in turn, assures us in its high rate of further sustained development.

Keywords: Byzantium, Taurica, Cherson, numismatics, molding of coins, Chinese technologies.

Information about author:

Michael Choref (Nizhnevartovsk, Russian Federation). Candidate of Historical Sciences. Nizhnevartovsk State University. Lenin St., 56, Nizhnevartovsk, 628605, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District — Yugra, Russian Federation
E-mail: [email protected]