МІСЦЕ ФАЛЬШИВИХ ДЕНАРІЇВ У ГОСПОДАРСТВІ НАСЕЛЕННЯ СЕРЕДНЬОГО ПОДНІСТРОВ‟Я ІІ–V СТ. Н. Е.
THE PLACE OF COUNTERFEIT DENARII IN THE ECONOMY OF THE POPULATION OF THE MIDDLE REACHES OF THE DNIESTER OF THE II–V CENTURIES

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to attempt to interpret the mass finds of cast denarii on the territory of Middle Transnistria, made public on various Internet forums, as a result of the active use of metal detectors. An attempt is made to study and find out the place of fake denarii in the economy of barbarian tribes, the focus is on the problem of economic expediency of the organization of coin production in the territory of the mentioned region. Scientists have long been interested in the fact of parallel circulation of full-fledged silver denarii with the same denarii, but made of bronze or copper, that is, fake ones. Such Roman denarii are found on the territory of the Roman border. The questions remain open: what are these coins, who issued them and for what purpose. Previously, such coins were clearly considered the work of counterfeiters. However, the finds of such coins are massive and today number in the thousands and tens of thousands, which indicates their wide circulation, and the territory of their circulation quite clearly fits into the habitat of the Chernyakhov culture, in particular the middle and upper Pobuzhzhia, Transnistria and Volhynia. A huge number of such coins allows us to talk about parallel money circulation. At the same time, there are no mentions of the organization and existence of a stable money circulation in the specified lands in the ancient sources. In recent years, active attempts have been made to study the finding of fake denarii, their analysis and systematization. The rapid growth of numismatic material due to the active use of metal detectors allows us to assert the presence of a significant percentage of fake cast denarii among the finds of ancient coins. Moreover, as fans of instrument metal detectors claim, in some areas of Middle Transnistria, the percentage of cast and full silver denarii is almost the same. For historical and archaeological science, such methods of obtaining sources are unacceptable, but historians and archaeologists should consider information of this origin for scientific analysis. Several years of monitoring of information and Internet resources attests to massive finds in the mentioned territory of objects related to Roman times, primarily buckles and fibulae. Among the coin finds, Roman silver denarii and their copies, or fake cast denarii, called "limesni", dominate. We consider this name to be apt and include in this category cast denarii, which were made according to the model of a coin of official state minting, but from a different material, mostly bronze. Therefore, the mass of finds raises the question of the reasons for production and the place of cast denarii in the economy of barbarian tribes at that time. In the late Roman period, border contact zones began to form on the borders of the immense empire. The territory of the middle course of the Dniester River (modern Podillia) became one of such zones, which is characterized by a significant number of recorded monuments of the Chernyakhov culture and the presence of Trajan's ramparts. The region between Smotrych and other left tributaries of the middle course of the Dniester and the upper reaches of the Southern Bug is considered to be the center of the process of formation of the Chernyakhiv culture. Research in recent years has revealed new monuments of the late Roman period and even places where coins and fibulae were foundry of that period. At the same time, numerous finds of fake (so-called lime) denarii of local production are recorded, which puts on the agenda the question of the place of these coins in the economy of the population of the region. The researchers even located several centers of "production" of cast denarii in the area where the Chernyakhiv culture spread (the village of Korzhivtsi, Khmelnytskyi region, as well as at other sites in the Rivne, Khmelnytskyi, and Vinnytsia regions), which gives grounds to attest to the local production of such coins. In the works of researchers of recent years, the types and groups of fake coins of the Roman era were determined, and the elemental composition of cast denarius alloys was analyzed. In 2018, a center for the "production" of cast denarii was located near the village of Abrikosivka, Kamianets-Podilskyi district. Here sprues, coins with remnants of sprues, "production defect" and foundry slag were discovered. Among the "finished products" are exclusively "replicas" of the denarius of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius. Incidentally, it should be noted that in both of the above examples, a special casting technique common in the Middle East and Taurica was used in the centers of "production" of cast denarii at the Korzhivtsi and Abrikosivka sites. The limitation of the source base does not allow to fully reproduce the peculiarities of the economic development of the territory of Middle Transnistria in the II–V centuries. N. e. However, the spread of the fake coin testifies to a massive and well-organized money circulation in the local environment. No other coinage period has known such a large number of counterfeit coins in circulation. In addition, most of these denarii are quite skillfully made and bear traces of long-term use. Such coins were made of bronze with various ligature impurities, which in circulation were supposed to "work" less than silver denarii, which, with a high fineness of silver, were quite soft and quickly wore out during use. Therefore, a significant number of fake coins is a manifestation of their certain place in economic life and certain needs of the market. The perspective of further research. The analysis of mass finds of fake denarius, some of which were discovered at the places of their foundry production, should be considered in the context of the spread of "Roman fashion" and the mass use of fibulae, rings and buckles of the Roman type in the local environment. We believe that lime denarii add to the understanding of the polyethnicity of the Chernyakhiv culture, since for several centuries they provided the economic and economic needs of the internal trade of the Gothic military elite with agricultural producers of agricultural products.

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