DETERMINATION OF THE DEGREE OF RARITY IN THE COMPILATION OF THE CATALOG ON THE EXAMPLE OF COINS OF GALICIAN RUS’ IN XIV-XV CENTURIES

  • Андрій Крижанівський
Keywords: Galician grosz, Galician (Red) Rus’, Lviv mint, rarity degree, coin catalogue

Abstract

This article deals with the problem of checking the correct establishing the rarity of Lviv coins of the XIV-XV centuries. In 2007 the author published the first catalog of Lviv coins, which took into account all the main types and varieties of coins, studied by the author in the largest museums and private collections in Ukraine, Poland, Russia, Moldova, adding them with the data about coins from museums in Austria, Hungary and private collections in the USA. Since then, the number of coins of Lviv known to the author has grown from 2000 to more than 8,000 pieces. This makes an actuality to compile a new catalog, including all new variants and reviewing the rarity of existing coins. Comparing with the previous catalogue, the number of varieties of Lviv coins increased significantly to 307 positions after 178 in the first version of the catalogue. Thus, almost every variant has a photo image of the coin, which significantly increases the visibility of the submitted material, as well as confirms the existence of the distinguish features (in the first catalog there were only 90 photos of coins, and 88 coins were presented only in descriptions, without a photo). In its first version, the author, following the example of the compilers of other catalogues, near the mark of rarity degree, gave an approximate estimated market value of all variants of coins listed in the catalog. Moreover, in private conversations many of them thought that without it the catalog would lose its attractiveness. However, establishing the market value of individual varieties of coins is a subjective assessment, and still good if there is no malicious intent. Instead, the real price of the coin should be considered according to the auction results, which is an objective indicator of its value. The first version of the catalogue provided the approximate price of each coin and according to the actual results of the auctions. In its second version, the author left only the value of the coin according to the auction results for individual coins (of course, not all the different variants of coins passed in time at auctions – only 67 positions out of 307 items included in the catalogue). Therefore, for the remaining 240 variants of Lviv coins, it is very important to establish a rarity. Therefore, we tried our best to objectively check the rates of their rarity. An attempt at such a verification appeared on the example of the last study of Lviv coins of the XIV-XV centuries. In the work over the new version of the catalogue for the first time for the medieval coins was verified the establishment of the rarity. In the first version of the catalogue of these coins, the author used the rarity gradation proposed by Emerick Gutten-Chapsky in the 19th century, according to which the rarities of individual stamp varieties correspond to the following number of saved coins (upper and lower bounds of the estimated number of coins) from the degree of R3 * to R3. It should be noted that in the given graduation, the number of coins stored is too long from minimum to maximum, especially for less rare variants. For example, for R4 coins, their number is in the range of 121 pcs. up to 600 pcs, and for coins with R3 rarity these frames are even larger: 601-3000 pcs. Therefore, in order to verify the correctness of the establishment of the rarities in our catalog, in addition to the upper and lower bounds accepted, the average number of coins stored for each rarity is determined. Of course, this attempt to verify the degrees of rarity, first raised in the numismatic literature, will have some remarks and ideas on how to improve the proposed method. Information about the presence of a variety of variants of Lviv coins and their number has emerged, and we continue to emerge precisely because of the considerable interest in coins from the numismatic past of our Motherland. In general there were a few mints in our country and the duration of their activity was shortterm. And all the finds of the coins from these mints are carefully recorded by our Ukrainian numismatists. If not now, in the nearest future there will be a great opportunity and even the obligation to compile their detailed and complete catalogues – for each Ukrainian mint. This grandiose work will perhaps be, to some extent, exemplary for numismatists from other countries, where the large number of mints does not make it possible to reflect so deeply the variety of coinage.
not make it possible to reflect so deeply the variety of coinage.

Author Biography

Андрій Крижанівський

Editor-in-Chief of the journal
«Lviv numismatic notes»
Lviv, Ukraine

References

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Published
2019-10-17
How to Cite
Крижанівський, А. (2019). DETERMINATION OF THE DEGREE OF RARITY IN THE COMPILATION OF THE CATALOG ON THE EXAMPLE OF COINS OF GALICIAN RUS’ IN XIV-XV CENTURIES. The Ukrainian Numismatic Annual, (3), 67-76. https://doi.org/10.31470/2616-6275-2019-3-67-76