Specialists complete restoration and scholarly study of a hoard of sixteenth-century copper coins

Specialists have completed the restoration and scholarly study of a hoard of sixteenth-century copper coins. It was found by the capital's archaeologists on Bolshaya Tatarskaya Street. Archaeological investigations were carried out here at several excavation sites at once in 2023–2024.

An important part of the find was a small hoard of 12 copper coins of the sixteenth century. In all likelihood, it is the contents of a purse or bundle made of organic material, leather or cloth, which has long since rotted away entirely. In other words, the archaeologists have most probably uncovered the pocket money of a Muscovite, lost by him in his own day.

It is to the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that the numerous numismatic finds belong, the bulk of them Moscow and Tver copper pulo. These small coins were issued in great quantities and had a very low face value: several dozen of them were given for a silver kopeck. That is precisely why the pulo is such a frequent find in the cultural layer of Russian towns.

The site where the archaeological investigations took place lies within a historic district of Moscow, the Tatar Quarter (Tatarskaya Sloboda), whose foundation is traditionally dated to the fourteenth century. It was inhabited by settlers from the Tatar principalities of the Volga region and from the Golden Horde.

In all, over the past 14 years the capital's archaeologists have discovered more than 120 thousand finds. Over 47 thousand items have been transferred to the museum collection in the past five years.