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Srebrennik - Vladimir the Great type I
| Issuer | Kyivan Rus |
|---|---|
| Year | 980-1015 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Cyrillic |
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| Reverse description | Frontal bust of Jesus Christ depicted in Byzantine orant or Pantocrator style, with a cruciform nimbus (halo), rendered in the manner characteristic of contemporary Byzantine coinage. Christ is shown with both arms raised or gesturing, wearing imperial robes with visible drapery folds. A Cyrillic inscription surrounds the figure within a beaded border, identifying the image. The stylised, flat relief execution is consistent with the early hammered coinages of Kyivan Rus, strongly influenced by Byzantine prototypes of the Macedonian dynasty. |
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| Additional information |
The srebrennik was struck under Vladimir Sviatoslavich following his conversion to Byzantine Christianity in 988 — a political realignment so total that it restructured Kyivan coinage, diplomacy, and ecclesiastical authority simultaneously. Before Vladimir, Rus rulers had no native silver coinage at all; the srebrennik was an assertion of sovereign minting rights modeled explicitly on Byzantine miliaresia, down to the fabric and module.
Type I is the earliest of four recognized types and the rarest in any condition. Surviving examples are predominantly excavation finds, typically corroded and fragmentary, which means problem-free specimens are genuinely exceptional rather than merely scarce by registry standards.