«COUNTERFEITING», «UNOFFICIAL» OR «UNOFFICIAL COIN PRODUCTION»? TO THE QUESTION PRESENTED «CAST» DENARIUS OF THE I-III CENTURIES AND PRESENTED ON «BARBARIC» TERRITORIES OF THE SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE (BASED ON THE MATERIALS OF THE INTER-RIVERS OF THE MIDDLE

Abstract

One of the «white» spots, which, until recently, was clearly fixed not only against the background of the monetary circulation of Roman times, but also the events associated with the formation of some archaeological cultures, and in particular, Chernyakhivsky, among other things, the theme was set out presence «cast» denarius, copied from the emissions of the I-III centuries AD in the South-Eastern Europe area. At the same time, the monitoring of  the information space, and, first of all, internet resources,fixes the growth of messages about the detection of coins from this group, which, in turn,adds arguments that it is necessary to update the research issues which helps to identify sources of their receipt (or origin), chronology of «production» and «circulation», as well as places in everyday life, cults and beliefs of the population living in this territory in the first third of the 1st millennium BC. These circumstances have led to launch the program «Moneta Barbaricum», in the framework of «Terra Amadociae» project, in 2014, among its primary tasks were the accumulation, verification, systematization and analysis of the basic information, the attraction and introduction new materials into the scientific circulation, and in particular, which was connected with local centers of «emissions» of cast denarians on the outskirts of Korzhyvtsi village, Derazhnyanskiy district and Abrykosivka village, Kamyanets-Podilskiy district of Khmelnytskiy region. In parallel with this, in 2016, the first steps were taken to study the elemental composition of cast alloys of denarius and waste from their «production». However, the detection and fixation of the activities of «emission» centers in Korzhyvtsi and Abrykosivka, testing of X-ray fluorescent graphy of «finished products» and «waste products» it is only a small percentage that needs to be done to find out the problems associated with the subject of the presence of «replicas» of the Roman denarius of the I-III centuries in the «barbaric» territories of Southeastern Europe, and hence the answer to the questions: «cast» denarius – forgery, unofficial imitation or informal coin production? In contrast to the materials those were accumulated in the work of foreign researchers, today disclosing the theme of cast denarius in the spread of the Chernyakhiv community operated a rather limited range of sources. However, they also form the basis for preliminary conclusions, namely:
1. Localization of centers of «production» of cast denarians on the territory of the distribution of Chernyakhiv culture (Korzhyvtsi and Abrykosivka in Khmelnytskiy region), as well as on other objects of Rivne, Khmelnytskiy and Vinnitsa regions gives grounds to certify local production of cast denarius.
2. Identified complexes and separate artifacts have fixed two technological techniques of molding: «coin tree» (Korzhyvtsi, Abrykosivka) and in clay (single) forms (Goshchanskiy district of Rivne region).
3. The mapping of the places of production of the cast coin coincides with the zone of formation of the early Chernyakhiv monuments, however, the chronology of their possible function (the second half of the 2nd – the first third of the 3rd centuries) falls out of the generally accepted dating of the lower boundary of Chernyakhiv culture. Though the theme of the cast denarius is a specific theme, and frankly speaking, it is still an interest only a narrow circle of specialists and collectors, however, it forms the preconditions for making certain adjustments to the essence of understanding the content of the relationship between the Roman and «barbarians» and reveals the essence of the economic processes that took place in the contact zone of the Empire and the Orbis Barbarorum, which, in fact, was the corridor of the inter-rite Southern Bug and Dniester.