Treasures of Tambov merchants. Lipetsk treasures Scientific approach is the main thing

Moscow and the Moscow region, having been a center of attraction for various interests since ancient times, are considered today to be one of the most interesting and promising objects for searching for treasures.
The capital, surrounded by ancient cities, connected with them by a rich and turbulent history, constantly opens new pages in the annals of treasure hunting, which has been developed thanks to technical progress in the production of household metal detectors. And since the interest in the history of Russia is now enormous, we can expect an increase in cases of discovery of treasures hidden in ancient times in the Moscow region.

This article will focus specifically on treasures in the Moscow region, which are often discovered by accident, during agricultural or construction work, as well as during special searches conducted not only by professional archaeologists, but also by amateur archaeologists or search engines. Armed with ground metal detectors, they are trying to identify the places where hundreds of years ago people buried their savings in the ground.

Indeed, since ancient times people have trusted the earth with their savings. This happened everywhere and to everyone: the burying of money and other valuables (for example, weapons) was not isolated, but widespread, since there were no banks and other savings systems with sufficient reliability at that time, and the situation forced one to take care of one’s own money and dictated strict conditions under which it was impossible to remain inactive. People were afraid of losing even insignificant funds, so many small treasures that are now located in the territories of ancient villages, on land and waterways cannot be called treasures.
These are, rather, wallets, secret places that people access constantly, sometimes several times a day. In an era when there were no castles, and all sorts of outrages were happening all around, thieves were roaming, small and large wars were fought, the need to protect what had been accumulated was very urgent! That is why people regularly and methodically buried all the most valuable things, and especially money, in the ground! Let us add here other factors that influenced this process and which ultimately “helped” our contemporaries, armed with metal detectors, to periodically detect treasures. Wars, fires, epidemics, persecutions - at such moments people lost their bearings on their buried wealth, and storeroom notes describing the signs where their savings lay disappeared. And if you consider that each person could have several small caches, it becomes clear why Russia is considered one of the most promising countries in terms of finding buried treasures!

The treasures discovered in the Moscow region belong to different time periods and differ in their composition. However, treasures from the pre-Petrine period predominate, and this is understandable: it was in those times that there was a complete absence of any stability in Russia, forcing everyone to take care of their property.

map of discovered treasures in the Moscow region

Where to look for treasure in the Moscow region?

If you try to make a map of the places where treasures were discovered in the Moscow region, it will clearly point to places where human activity was especially active over the centuries. First of all, attention is drawn to the cities, which have always been centers of attraction for people, capital, and trade.
The ancient Russian cities of Kolomna, Volokolamsk, Serpukhov, Dmitrov, which survived numerous wars, fires and other disasters, are today the custodians of many treasures. Their surroundings, in which ancient rural settlements were located and are still located, are also included in the list of places where one can potentially find both treasure-wallets and full-fledged large treasures, consisting not only of coins, but also jewelry, household items, antiques. weapons. Actually, such cases happen quite often.

So, near the village of Bely Omut on the territory of an ancient settlement, right on the banks of the Oka River, two treasures were discovered: one of jewelry and Samanid dirhams, the other contained oriental coins totaling 110 pieces. The discovery of these treasures is very significant, since here, on the banks of the river, they can be found in abundance!
After all, rivers served as trade routes in ancient times, and one of the main ones. If during the spring and autumn thaw the roads turned into an impassable mess, then the rivers became the only way for the reliable movement of people, goods and goods. And it’s no wonder that traders, embarking on long and risky journeys, buried money in order to retrieve it on the way back. Many of these treasures of the Moscow region remained lying in the ground, waiting for new owners, which can be absolutely anyone with search skills and, of course, luck.

Treasures were constantly hidden on the banks of rivers, but now they are more difficult to detect, since the riverbeds changed directions, the banks lost their outlines, silted up, eroded and crumbled. It is difficult now to restore their previous flows, but sometimes it is possible. It happens that treasures themselves are revealed to the lucky ones, when part of the shore collapses and exposes an ancient cache...

But the surrounding areas of the land routes along their entire length were exploited by people as temporary storage facilities for money and valuables. If a merchant went with goods to several cities, then he did not want to risk his money and hid it in a conspicuous place until he returned. Large trees, boulders, beams, hills - all these places could be used for temporary caches.

Thus, it turns out that settlement sites and the vicinity of the main trade routes of the Moscow region still contain many large and small treasures that have yet to be found.

On the banks of the Osetr River, near the village of Zheleznitsy, a treasure of 227 dirhams dating back to the 11th century was found. And this is not surprising, because this is where the ancient trade route passed! But it was in the 11th century that the “eastern silver crisis” occurred, after which silver began to be imported through other routes, through Zvenigorod, Dmitrov, Mozhaisk, that is, from the north and the west.

Treasures of the Moscow region - scales from the time of Ivan IV. “Scaly” treasures are also very often found in the Moscow region. This small coin was the main one in the monetary circulation of pre-Petrine Rus'. And to collect a decent amount, you needed a lot of them! Therefore, even a small treasure of silver kopecks, or copper pools, will contain a large number of these perfectly preserved coins! It is not uncommon for treasure hunters to discover such treasures near existing villages, in the field; often they are plowed up and scattered by plow across the field... There is nothing surprising here. It’s just that the villages of the Moscow region “floated” for centuries, moving small distances from their original place. This happened mainly after wars and fires, when people, not wanting to change their place, simply built a new house near the ashes or ruins.

For example, in the village of Mikulino-Gorodishche three treasures were found: a small jar with 1,200 perfectly preserved coins of Ivan IV, the second treasure consisted of 350 coins dated 1533-1538, and on the Volokolamsk tract, very close to the ancient settlement, a small clay pot with coins of Vasily III and Ivan IV.

Kashira The Kashira fortress existed in ancient times and was an important strategic and trade center. In the vicinity of an ancient settlement near Kashira, a treasure of oriental coins with a total weight of about 1.5 kg was discovered. It also contained unique oriental decorations.

Kolomna is another very promising region in the Moscow region in terms of treasure hunting. Located on busy “highways”, having previously been a border city of the Moscow Principality, opening the way to the south, to Ryazan, it still keeps many secrets hidden in the ground. Here in the 16th century the courts of the kings were located, and the settlements of the nobility and rich people were concentrated around them. Both archaeological excavations and random finds indicate that the storage potential of these places is far from exhausted!

Another city in which life was also vibrant is Dmitrov. One of the oldest cities, founded by Yuri Dolgoruky in 1154 and being the center of an appanage principality, it was located on one of the busiest trade routes. Treasures and egg capsules were found both in the city itself and in the immediate vicinity. For example, under the roots of a stump left from an old tree, a local resident found a small jar with coins from the time of Ivan IV! Near one of the temples, in the city itself, ministers unearthed another treasure containing 2,000 coins from the same period.

Many towns and villages near Moscow stand where several centuries ago people buried their treasures, wanting to save them for themselves. But not all, far from all, earthen “contributions” were in demand by the owners or their descendants. A great many caches have not been discovered, although they are located in such places that they are quite accessible to ordinary treasure hunters.

Moscow, being the center of attraction of various interests, and all the access roads to it, along which merchants, troops, and ordinary citizens moved, concentrated the treasures of the Moscow region! Just imagine that for 1000 years, huge masses of people with money, goods, and weapons moved along the same roads, through the same settlements. What could they do if they wanted to get to the right place without losing their money? And for ten centuries money, jewelry, and utensils were deposited and accumulated in the ground! Cities, towns and villages, roads and rivers, all these objects are of extremely great interest not only for archaeologists, but also for amateur treasure hunters. Those discoveries that have already been made speak volumes, but most importantly, they open up a broad perspective for searching for treasures, almost promising that the search may end in the discovery of another cache, unclaimed by its first owner.

And it is quite likely that some convenient bend in the bank of a river that is now drying up in the Moscow region can present a series of bright discoveries related to the history of Russia, hiding for the time being treasures and caches of different time periods, different eras. After all, no one knows where exactly the treasures lie. One can only guess about this, or build hypotheses based on historical events, archive data, or one’s own observations.
Treasures of the Moscow region, one of the richest regions for centuries, will still be found. And we will definitely find out about it!

ANCIENT TREASURES OF MOSCOW PROVINCE
41. Bogoroditsky u. A peasant from the village of Mshchineva 1 found a pot with small silver coins from the time of Ivan III. A significant portion of the coins were distributed among different hands. IAC, paragraph 2 approx., 31.

42. Vereisky u. In the village of Simbukhovo, a clay jar with 336 coins of Tsars Ivan III and Ivan IV, weighing 32 gold, was found. 72 d. DAK, 1898 n° 218. - OAK, 1898, 73 and 183.

43. Volokolamsk district In the village of Lvov in 1892, a treasure was found consisting of Tver and Goroden silver coins from Ivan Mikhailovich to Mikhail Borisovich. About a thousand entered the Historical Museum in Moscow, and 300 were distributed among collectors.
Oreshnikov, Russian coins before 1547, 22.

44. Kolomensky u. In the village In Bykov 2 in 1851, 500 silver coins of Tsars Ivan III and Ivan IV were found on the banks of the Azarovka River. ZRO, I, 16.

45. Kolomensky u. In the village 446 silver Russian coins of the late 14th century, weighing 95 gold, were found in the settlement. 48 d., and two fragments of a silver bracelet. The treasure entered the Hermitage. 3 DAK, 1896, n° 135. - KLA, 1896, 127 and 241.
1 According to the list of populated places in the Moscow province on the river. Vore village Michinova.
2 In Kolomenskoye u. in the list of populated places in the Moscow province. With. Bykovo is not listed, but the village of Bokovo near the river is listed. Azarova.
3 An interesting treasure, unfortunately, not described; It is not possible to determine from the Hermitage collection which coins belong to this treasure.

46. ​​Moscow. When the river floods Forty-two ancient Russian coins were found in the Yauza sand. Between them is a Novgorod pool, a Tver pool, a Moscow pool and eight coins of Alexei Mikhailovich.
Bulletin of Europe, 1820, III, n° 12, 318.

47. Moscow. In June 1840, while digging the bank of the Moscow River, opposite the Kremlin, a copper pool was found, representing an exact copy of the images and inscriptions on the money of Dark 1, persons. Art. rider with falcon, inscription around, vol. Art. Samson with a lion, circular inscription.
Chertkov, Description, III, 15.

48. Moscow. On Myasnitskaya Street in 1888, a treasure of 915 copper bullets was found, most of them from the era of Ivan III (Tver, Novgorod, Moscow), among them there were also bullets with the Tatar inscription of Mikhail Tevirdzhi. Antiquities, XVI, prot. 104-105. — Korzinkin, 14-32.

49. Moscow. A rich treasure was found near the Novodevichy Convent, consisting of three rusty copper vessels filled with silver coins from the time of Ivan III. IAC, v. 5, approx. 44.

50. Moscow u. On the land of the appanage department, near the Chesme Pond, a treasure of 388 Russian silver coins of the 15th - 16th centuries was found. 2

51. Moscow u. In the village of Pechatniki, thirty-four Russian silver coins of the 15th-16th centuries were found in 1895. Ivan III, 3 Boris Fedorovich, Dmitry Ivanovich, Fedor Ivanovich, Vasily Ivanovich.
DAK, 1895, n° 96. - OAK, 1895, 69 and 191.

5 1 a. Moskovsky u. Along the Moscow-Ryazan railway. d. in the village At the Kosino cemetery, while digging a grave about five or six years ago, a treasure of grand ducal coins from the late 14th and early 15th centuries was found. (40 coins). The treasure was delivered to the Historical Museum in Moscow.
Message by A. V. Oreshnikov.
1 Along with this pool, several copper coins of Alexei Mikhailovich were also found.
2 In file no. 96 it is noted that the treasure was identified by Yu. B. Iversen and that it contains coins of Ivan III.
3 From the case it is clear that the treasure was identified by Yu. B. Iversen, who considered the coins issued by A. V. Oreshnikov under numbers 693-695 to belong to Ivan Vasilyevich III, while now their ownership of Ivan Vasilyevich IV is firmly established before the adoption of the royal title .
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"

52. Ruza. In 1887, an interesting treasure was found. The coins included in this treasure are among the rarest. Unfortunately, it still did not become known in its entirety, since immediately after its discovery it went into the hands of local residents and was already acquired from them in parts by different persons. Part of it got
to the meeting in. book Georgy Mikhailovich (now in the Russian Museum), part to the Uvarova collection, part to the Tolstoy collection (now in the Hermitage) and, finally, a relatively small amount, through the local authorities, to the Archaeological Commission. Tolstoy, who described this treasure, says that he has reason to assert that only a small part of the coins found in the treasure remained undiscovered. The treasure contained coins:
V. book Vasily Dmitrievich (1389-1425), c. book Vasily Vasilievich
Dark (1425-4462);
allies of Vasily Vasilyevich Dark
a) with Yuri
Dmitrievich Galitsky,
b) with Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky,
c) with Semyon
Vlavimirovich Borovsky,

d) with Alexander Fedorovich Yaroslavsky,
e) with Pyotr Dmitrievich Dmitrovsky, and coins of princes: Yuri Dmitrievich Galitsky (1389-1434), Andrei Dmitrievich Mozhaisky (1389-1432), Vladimir Andreevich the Brave of Serpukhov (1358-1410), Semyon Vladimirovich Borovsky (1410-1426), Peter Dmitry Evicha Dmitrovsky (1389-1428), Andrei Fedorovich of Rostov (1331-1409) and a number of unidentified coins. The coins of the described treasure fit into a time period spanning the last quarter of the 14th century and slightly more than the first quarter of the 15th century.
DAK, 1887, n° 46. - OAK, 1887, p. CCI. - ZRAO, n. p., XIV, 30-49.

53. Ruzsky u. In the village of Drozdovo, Oreshkovo volost, near the river. In Ozerna in May 1915, a treasure of Russian grand ducal money was found in a large mound, in the forest near the Astafievskaya mill. It contained 243 coins,
of which 240 were Russian and 3 were non-epigraphic (probably Lithuanian, from the time of Vytautas).
The distribution of the treasure among the principalities is presented as follows:
Moscow. V. book. Vasily Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 2 5). . . . . . full 50 copies.
V. book. Vasily Dimitrievich. half money 10 copies
Galich. V. book. Yuri Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 3 9). . . . . . . . . . full 4 copies.
Serpukhov. Book Vladimir Andreevich the Brave (1358-1410).... full-fledged 4 copies.
Mozhaisk Book Andrey Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 3 2) . . . . . . . . . . full 6 copies.
Book Andrey Dimitrievich half-money 5 copies.
Dmitrov. Book Peter Dimitrievich (1 3 8 9 - 1 4 2 8) . . . . . . . . . full 4 copies.
Rostov. Princes Andrei Fedorovich (1331-1409) and Constantine
Vladimirovich (d. 1415). . . . . . full-fledged 1 copy.
With illegible legends of full 10 copies.
Suzdal. V. Book Dmitry Konstantinovich (1365-1383) full 3 copies.
Book and c. book Vasily Kirdyapa (1 3 6 6 - 1 3 9 1) . . . . . full 4 copies.
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"
Suzdal. Book Daniil full-fledged 6 copies.
Unidentified full 3 copies.
Unidentified pure Tatar type, 21 full-fledged specimens.
Unidentified Russian-Tatar type.. full-fledged 72 copies.
Uncertain Russian-Tatar type... half-money 6 copies.
Left without any definition due to unsatisfactory
minting or preservation. . . . full 31 copies.
TNK, III, Chizhov, Drozdovsky treasure.

TREASURE IN MOSCOW ZARYADYE
A precious treasure with silver coins from the times of Ivan the Terrible and Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich was discovered by archaeologists from the Capital Archaeological Bureau during excavations in Moscow’s Zaryadye Park, the 360° Moscow Region TV channel reports.
The ancient money was hidden in three vessels: a jug, a flask and a small jar, in total - about 40-43 thousand, their total weight is more than 20 kilograms.
Among them there are coins of all rulers from Ivan the Terrible (from 1533) to the beginning of the reign of Mikhail Romanov (from 1613). Since the latest kopecks date back to 1614-1615, the concealment of the treasure should be attributed to this time, archaeologists conclude.
“The treasure represented a very significant savings at the time of its concealment. For example, the total amount of savings included in the deposit (350-380 rubles) is the salary of a rifle colonel for 12-15 years.
In general, this amount is the cost of several local villages at the beginning of the seventeenth century,” said representatives of the Moscow City Heritage. This find was the largest in recent times.

TREASURE AT VDNH
Right in the ground at a depth of about 1.5 m, many small change silver coins of the beginning of the last century (1921-1924) were discovered in denominations of 15, 20 and 50 kopecks, folded in columns.
A total of 329 coins worth 79.9 rubles were found. It has not yet been possible to determine who owned the cache; it is only known that in those years these lands belonged to the collective farm named after V.I. Lenin.
Numismatic experts valued the find at approximately 10 thousand modern rubles. In the future, the coins will remain on the territory of VDNH and will be transferred to the museum.

TREASURE IN KADASHEVSKAYA SLOBODA
A treasure from the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich was discovered during archaeological excavations in Kadashevskaya Sloboda, the Moscow City Heritage Agency reported.
“During excavations, at a depth of 150 cm from the modern day surface, a treasure of the 17th century was found - 1087 coins from the reign of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich. The main component of the treasure is hand-minted copper pennies,” the department told TASS.
As archaeologists note, despite the fact that the coins need restoration, the quality of some of them is very high. These coins were minted from 1654 to 1663.

In 1663, the Copper Riot took place, the cause of which was, among other things, depreciated copper coins: silver coins began to be issued in their place; after the riot, the minting of copper coins ceased.

“The find is undoubtedly of scientific interest,” the Moscow City Heritage Department emphasized.

In addition, during security archaeological work, the remains of an industrial complex associated with the processing of non-ferrous metal were uncovered, which indicates the existence of a Mint near this territory.

In addition to coins, archaeologists discovered household items from the 17th-18th centuries. Among them are stove tiles and ceramics, fragments of relief-polychrome and mural tiles, red relief tiles of the 17th century. depicting battle scenes and animals (lion, unicorn, birds of paradise). In addition, a fragment (cut) of a copper icon with the image of St. Nikita of the 15th-16th centuries, a white stone millstone, and fragments of copper foundry crucibles were discovered.

Archaeological excavations on the territory of the Kadashevskaya Sloboda archaeological heritage site (the territory of the cultural layer of the 17th century) will continue until September of this year.

FIELD OF MIRACLES IN THE MOSCOW REGION
Field of Miracles is what amateur archaeologists call a popular place in the Moscow region for searching for historical treasures. According to Muscovite Sergei Kalinsky, rarely does anyone leave here empty-handed. In the 18th century, there was a large fair on the territory of the village of Rogachevo. For 10 years now, fans of antiquity have been finding silver rubles, gold jewelry and peasant household items here. In a couple of hours, in the presence of a RIA Novosti film crew, Kalinsky found an old horseshoe and a coin from 1731 from the era of Anna Ioannovna in a field near Moscow.

In search of treasures, the "digger" traveled all over the Moscow region, visited the Tver region, and the Ryazan region. He has been interested in alternative archeology for more than three years, during which time the Muscovite’s apartment has turned into a “historical museum.” “A gold peasant wedding ring, coins - from the era of Ivan the Terrible to Soviet times, a pre-Mongol cross - I found all this in a field \" - the treasure hunter told RIA Novosti. Kalinsky is an experienced \"digger\", he finds places to search himself. Conducting research on the territory of archaeological monuments is prohibited by law, so burial grounds, fortresses and mounds are avoided by search engines. But the villages that have disappeared from the face of the earth are a treasure trove of historical values, accessible to everyone.\"

I compare old maps found in archives with modern ones, then go to the site. If there is a dark spot on the field, it means that there was once a settlement there,” explains Kalinsky. The digger goes out hunting, armed with a shovel and a metal detector. The treasure hunter’s special equipment is capable of “feeling” a silver coin at a depth of up to forty centimeters.\" If the metal detector beeps continuously, it means there is silver underground. If it’s torn, it means it’s iron. But sometimes “Katina” nickels - coins from the time of Catherine the Great - can sound like this,” Kalinsky told RIA Novosti.
Single finds are considered “lost” things that you can keep for yourself, says Sergei. If several coins are found at once, this is already a treasure that, by law, must be given to the state. Seekers of historical treasures also have their own set of rules.\"A self-respecting treasure hunter will not trample crops - we do not dig in sown fields. In addition, you must definitely bury the excavation behind you,\" Kalinsky explained. Everything that\"diggers \" are found in the field, they are taken home, the finds are washed and, if necessary, restored. Treasure hunters call themselves amateur archaeologists and are against the title "black diggers." According to seekers of historical treasures, the places where they are looking for treasure are not archaeological monuments, and, therefore, no damage is caused to science.

TREASURE OF THE CITY OF TALDOM
This summer, second-grader Lena Solovyova from the village of Nushpoly, while playing near her home, found several old coins - heavy copper nickels, green with age. As it turned out later, they were scattered during excavation work and represented part of a treasure with fragments of a vessel.
Six-year-old Kolya Belyaev, Yulya Chuvikova, Zhenya and Vasya Kunitsa, and Seryozha Konovalov took an active part in the search for the remaining coins. The luckiest of all was seventh grader Andrei Chernyshev - he found thirty-two coins, and fifth grader Sasha Belov - as many as fifty!
A total of 158 copper coins were found, dating from 1758 to 1804. They mainly belong to the times of Empresses Elizabeth and Catherine II. One coin, a two-kopek coin, was issued under Paul I and one, a nickel, was issued under Alexander I.
The coin is a very interesting and meaningful historical monument. All the more interesting is the treasure, which is like a snapshot of ancient monetary circulation, helping to learn more about the history of coinage and commodity production, about the trade routes of antiquity.
So, in our treasure there are coins minted in various places in Russia: in Moscow and Yekaterinburg (now Sverdlovsk), at the Anninsky (now Perm region) and Kolyvanovsky (Novosibirsk region) mints.
On most coins, on the obverse side (on the obverse) the state emblem of Russia is depicted - a double-headed eagle and the designation of the denomination (monetary denomination), on the reverse side of the coin (on the reverse) - inside the wreath is the monogram of the Empress (Elizabeth or Catherine II) and the date. Some researchers believe that the expression “heads” or “tails” owes its origin to Elizabeth’s coins of this type: the complex symmetrical monogram of the Empress on these coins was popularly called the “sieve.” The average weight of such a copper coin is 51 grams.
Among the coins found, two are of greatest numismatic interest. This is not an ordinary coin from 1760, which indicates the place of minting - the Moscow Mint. Another coin from 1789 is the only one of the entire treasure minted at the Kolyvanovsky Mint, and it can be classified as a “remake” - test coins or minted at the request of collectors. The treasure also contains coins that were re-minted.
In our country, many dozens of finds of treasures of ancient coins become known every year. In the old days, hiding “extra” money in the ground or in a cache was as common as for us storing it in a savings bank. A person who suddenly died, was killed, or was driven into captivity took the secret of the treasure with him. This apparently happened with the treasure found in Nushpoly.
On behalf of the Taldom Local History Museum, we would like to thank all the guys who helped in the search and donated coins from the treasure to the museum.
Now the entire “Nushpol” treasure is exhibited in the numismatics department of our museum.
T. KHLEBYANKINA,
ml. Researcher at the Taldom Museum of Local Lore.

SEMKIN TREASURE IN MOSCOW
Professional treasure hunters do not advertise themselves and usually categorically refuse to meet with journalists. Gosha, who has twenty years of search experience, after much persuasion, agreed to tell us something about himself.
“My grandfather was a miner who built sewers in the center of Moscow. I often brought coins from work that I found, mostly silver, the size of a child’s fingernail, “scales.” He kept some for his collection, the rest he took to the “bugs” resellers hanging around the numismatic departments.
At the age of 14, when my father and mother died in an accident, I began to live with my grandfather and grandmother. To avoid falling into bad company, my grandfather decided to encourage me to look for treasures. I bought various books, took me to museums, talked about my coins, when and how they were minted; fantasized, trying to imagine when, by whom and why this or that treasure was hidden.

A hundred years ago, treasure hunters sold their finds on the famous Sukharevka...
For ten years, my grandfather and I climbed through the attics of houses where wealthy people lived before the revolution. They found everything there - books, documents, photographs, dishes, musical instruments, samovars, tiles... They carried this stuff home in the evenings, with precautions so that God forbid someone would spot it. Then the finds were washed and cleaned, after which the grandfather took them to Uncle Vasya, who was selling at the flea market. With the “junk” money I bought myself a bicycle, my first jeans, and a portable tape recorder.
The grandmother swore: “The apartment has been turned into a trash heap!” She changed her anger to mercy when they brought her a Chinese porcelain vase painted with red dragons from the attic. Grandma admired it for a long time, but was afraid to put it in the sideboard, so she hid it on the mezzanine.
Valuable finds are very rare. And where do they come from? During arrests, the Cheka - NKVD - MGB carried out thorough searches; in the KGB, a whole department dealt with treasures. Everything was raked out. True, we once discovered under a pile of rubbish a silver teapot, a sugar bowl, a set of forks, spoons and knives; another time - two inexpensive silver cigarette cases, a Swiss watch, two pairs of gold earrings and a broken chain packed in a leather box. Only the grandmother started making noise and didn’t want to keep these things at home. My grandfather had to sell them through a collector he knew.”
One of the attic trips allowed Gosha to significantly expand the family numismatic collection. The collection hidden by someone consisted of ancient and medieval (Russian, Polish, Swedish) gold and silver coins. There were about fifteen denarii of Alexander the Great alone, and all of them were in excellent condition.
But that's not all. Gosha collected an excellent collection of bladed weapons in the attics - swords, sabers, broadswords, daggers and dirks. Some of them could decorate the windows of the Historical Museum. Twice treasure hunters found old revolvers, but, out of harm’s way, my grandfather again hid them in the attic.
“Since the beginning of the 1990s, it has become difficult to work in the capital,” Gosha said. - Many young seekers have appeared. The attics were ransacked by homeless people who had settled there. “New Russians” began to take over buildings in the center of Moscow; The restoration had not yet begun, and they were already setting up security. And the local police officers went wild. He held me hostage alone until my grandfather brought him two hundred dollars.
But I couldn’t give up on this anymore. “Addicted” to treasure hunting, like heroin. By this time my grandfather had retired. I quit my job (after graduating from the institute, Gosha served in one of the capital’s museums. - T.B.). We began to drive our old Niva around the regions - Moscow, Tver, Vladimir, Tula. Grandfather has at least seventh grade jelly everywhere, and relatives. From them they learned about abandoned villages, about landowners' houses, who, where and what kind of treasures were looking for in their areas.
It’s a pleasure to work in remote corners: you can explore houses without haste, and walk around with a metal detector calmly. There was a case when they found St. Nicholas the Saint of the 18th century in a silver frame and two old printed books; and in one hut in the attic, the roof above which miraculously did not leak, they found a gramophone wrapped in sackcloth. The usual “catch” is copper and silver coins, cast iron irons, spinning wheels, wooden utensils, gramophones, kerosene lamps, chests, candlesticks, lamps, cast iron.”
From a distant relative who worked in a rural school all her life, we learned about “Semka’s treasure.”
In a village forgotten by God and people, where the road was overgrown with bushes, there once lived a family - an old mother and son Semka. They were so poor that even the poor girls did not agree to marry the guy. Before the First World War, he went to work in Moscow, from there he moved to St. Petersburg. For a long time there was neither a rumor nor a ghost about him. Semka returned to the village when the Bolsheviks came to power. He was dressed richly, with a gold cross on his neck and rings on his fingers. He brought his mother a velvet skirt, a silk shawl and earrings with large stones.
In honor of his return, Semka prepared a treat for the men. And when he got drunk, he began to boast that he now had as much gold as dirt. He spent two months partying, generously lending money, and then the district police came to the village. They tied the seed and began to look for gold. It turned out that he, together with his anarchist friends, was engaged in robberies in St. Petersburg. During the search, the old mother died from grief or fear. And Semka, who tried to escape while he was being taken through the forest, was shot by the police.
The men searched for Semkin’s “burial place” for a long time, and the chairman of the village council even destroyed his house to the ground, but the treasure was never given to them.
“I worked like hell for two weeks at the site of that village,” Gosha recalled. - When I dug up the leather bag, I couldn’t believe my eyes. Grandfather had to be soldered with valerian... Eh, it’s just a pity that the branded boxes were spoiled...”
The successful treasure hunter flatly refused to talk about the contents of the bag. But since before the revolution, products by Bohlen, Faberge and other famous jewelers were sold in branded boxes, we can assume that it was there.
It is no coincidence that after selling several things, Gosha inserted gorgeous snow-white teeth into himself, bought a metal detector for $3,000 and a used SUV. And he slowly sells “small things” through intermediaries at the Izmailovsky vernissage. And I went to Izmailovo.
After a long search, I found something suitable on one of the counters - in elegant boxes covered with half-decayed faded pink satin, there were two small gold crown brooches; one is decorated with small rosette diamonds, the other with brand new turquoise. Such trinkets were made for the 300th anniversary of the House of Romanov. I can’t say whether this is Goshin’s product, but the jewelry was clearly not stored in grandma’s wardrobe for a long time. They asked for these crowns for 300 and 250 dollars, but bargaining was appropriate.

Walking through the antique aisles, I asked the price of some items. Set of silver cutlery - $1000; Swiss watch “Moser” - $120; image of St. Nicholas the Saint in a silver frame - $400; gramophone - $400; denarius of Alexander the Great - $150; a flake coin, depending on the condition - 50-100 rubles (Goshi has a whole bucket of them). In general, Gosha and his grandfather earn money from milk and a sweet bun.
It remains to add that Gosha considers himself a law-abiding treasure hunter, since he does not look for treasures in ancient settlements, not in burial mounds, that is, not in places protected by the state.
...today they are bringing “treasures” to the Izmailovsky Vernissage

TREASURES OF THE TRADE ROUTES OF POCHYA
The word “treasure” (from the verb “to put”) appeared in Rus' only in the 17th century. But the chronicles testify: the concept of “luggage” or “treasure” (later - “treasure”) was known to the Slavs already in ancient times. For example, the “Pechersk Patericon” (an ancient collection of stories of hermit monks) tells about the monk Fyodor, who unearthed a huge amount of Latin gold and silver in the Varangian cave, and then Prince Mstislav Svyatopolkovich died on the rack, wanting to take possession of the jewelry...

First of all, let's try to answer the question: who hid the treasures and why? Pirates of distant seas, hiding loot before the next sea voyage, feudal lords burying treasury in a besieged castle, successful conquerors who carried away rich booty from a captured city? Yes, of course, that’s how it was in the West, but here in Rus' the situation is much simpler: everyone hid treasures! Hiding treasures has been a national tradition for many centuries: treasures were buried not only during the days of invasions, uprisings, political reforms and other historical cataclysms, but also on peaceful everyday life.

Of course, wealthy citizens, princes and boyars, hid their carefully guarded treasury only in emergency cases (for example, during raids or major fires), but commoners, having accumulated a thousand or two silver kopecks in a jar, hurried to bury it in the garden or in another secluded place. place, fearing the greedy. Plans indicating the burial places of family wealth were passed from father to son, from grandfather to grandson: and if the younger generation saved more than it spent, it also added its “treasures” to those already in the family. Naturally, during fires and raids, the maps were lost, their owners died - and the family wealth remained in the ground forever...

True, these “wealths” are very relative - after all, unlike America and Europe, the concept of “bank” or something similar did not exist in Rus' in principle: therefore, treasures replaced our ancestors with a current bank account! How convenient - I dug up a little jar of silver in the garden, took out 10 kopecks - bought a cow... Therefore, at the genetic level, many Russians still prefer their own sock, a dresser drawer, the far shelf of a linen closet to bank deposits... So, it is in vain to search in Moscow and Moscow region treasures gold and precious stones: most likely, your find will be a pile of silver money and copper pools (you won't find anything smaller than that!).

Most often, treasures worth from 20 to 100 rubles in silver kopecks are found - such amounts constituted the daily turnover of a small trader or the funds necessary for an artisan and peasant to pay all taxes and taxes. Just imagine: for a whole year a person worked in an artel, traded or raised crops and livestock, earned and saved money. The toll collectors came - he paid taxes for himself and his family, and remained a free man, an honest citizen or peasant. I didn’t save the pennies I earned: I instantly became a slave, a slave, and fell into the yoke! That’s why everyone buried treasures, both poor and rich: if you put it further away, you’ll take it closer. Who wants to lose freedom and property because of thieving adversaries, fires and raids?

Experts divide the treasures found in the capital and surrounding cities and villages into church, noble, merchant, peasant and even “children’s” - zealous owners taught the youth to be thrifty from a young age. In a word, there was no class that would not make its “contribution” to the secret business of enriching the bowels of the Moscow state.

Silver "louses"
Due to the cheapness of goods (especially food), almost the only monetary unit in Rus' until the 17th century was the silver penny: a small piece of money minted or cut from flattened silver wire, weighing less than a gram. “Russian kopecks are unpleasant to handle: they are small, slippery and tend to slip out of your fingers,” visiting foreigners spoke contemptuously of this money. By that time, Europeans had long ago developed a developed monetary system, led by the thaler - a large silver coin weighing 28 g. Silver rubles, half kopecks and gold coins were minted at the Moscow monetary court especially for settlements with foreigners, but they were not widely used. Peter I, who admired Western customs, called the silver pennies of his predecessors on the throne “lice”...

HELLO FROM TRADE PEOPLE

Now let's talk about the areas of distribution of treasures. First, let's look at the more interesting and “full-fledged” ancient treasures of the 8th-13th centuries. In 780-790 from the Nativity of Christ, ships sailed along the Volga, heading to the Baltic Sea and further to the shores of Iceland and Northern Europe. Slavic tribes also willingly traded with Arab merchants, and the object of trade was very often... money! Rus' at that time did not have its own silver mines, and the precious metal for monetary payments was exported from the East: according to contemporaries, at least a third of eastern silver dirhams ended up in the territory of Ancient Rus'. At first, foreign coins in Ancient Rus' were used everywhere to pay for goods, later they began to be melted down and Moscow money was minted from them (however, some princes limited themselves to marking foreign money with their own mark).

The trade road from East to West passed along the waterways of the Moskvorechye and Priokya rivers - large and small rivers were carried by sailing ships and entire caravans, the route of traders was marked by treasures that had already been discovered and still remain undiscovered in the coastal zone. In the “Oka treasures” (as scientists call them), there are massive silver pendants, earrings, plaques, neck hryvnias of indescribable beauty, rare coins of enormous historical and numismatic value. To find them, you need to explore those coastal lands that used to be shores. You should use a metal detector especially carefully where there are ancient settlements, fortresses and monasteries on the shore (I’ll tell you a secret that the land near the ancient fences of fortresses and monasteries is a favorite place for hiding treasures).

Fifteen treasures with Arabic silver dirhams were discovered in the Moscow region near the coast and in the Oka basin. I will name only the most significant of them. In the village of Gruchin on the banks of the Bolshaya Smedva, the right tributary of the Oka, a treasure of Abassid, Tahirid and Samarkand coins was found. In the villages of Ostrogi and Rostavets, clay jugs from the 10th century with Caliphic and Tahirid coins were found. The treasure, found in the village of Khitrovka, contained Byzantine and Oriental coins of the 8th-9th centuries with a total weight of more than 2 kg. Near the village of Bely Omut, on the territory of an ancient settlement on the left bank of the Oka River, two treasures were found: one of jewelry and Samanid dirhams, the other of various oriental coins totaling 110 pieces. A treasure was found in the village of Ozeritsy: more than a hundred different oriental coins. On the bank of the Nara, the left tributary of the Oka, 12 km from the Sharapova Okhota station, a treasure was found - 227 dirhams from the 11th century. On the bank of the Osetra, the right tributary of the Oka, in the village of Zheleznitsy, through which the ancient southern trade route passed, a treasure trove of jewelry and oriental coins weighing about 2 kg was found.

Therefore, next I will tell you about the most “promising” territories in the Moscow region in terms of treasures: “intermediate” cities, so to speak, that served as major transshipment points for traveling merchants. It was in their surroundings that it made sense to leave the treasure, the money received for part of the goods in the local shopping arcades, in order to pick it up on the way back, returning from distant travels. Why here, and not in the middle of nowhere? It’s very simple: a large city will not disappear anywhere; even if you want to, you cannot pass it when returning home. Move a little further from the city, up the riverbed or along the road, away from prying eyes, choose a noticeable landmark - a mighty tree or a piece of rock - and dig yourself a free cell in the Moscow Natural Bank! Surely the merchants of Yuri Dolgoruky or Ivan the Terrible had no idea what interest rates would accrue on their capital by now from numismatists...

Load pennies in barrels...
Imagine the turnover of large Moscow merchants: the income of the Filatov dynasty in the Salt of Vychegda alone amounted to 5,900 rubles a year in the 17th century (almost six hundred kilograms of kopecks!). The merchant Vasily Shorin had to pay taxes in the amount of 28,718 rubles in 1655: almost 3 million kopecks, three tons of silver money! Historians testify: the mints of the Moscow princes and tsars worked tirelessly, pennies were minted continuously, but the country constantly felt a shortage of cash, because the bulk of the money lay in the ground...

WHERE IS THE TREASURE BURIED?

I'll start with Kashira - this most important strategic point in Muscovite Rus'. This fortress was first mentioned in chronicles in 1353: pay special attention to the surrounding hills, coastal zones of the Oka, as well as Besputa, Eight, Kremnitsa and Kashirki (especially near the confluence with the Oka), lands adjacent to Alexandrovsky Nikitsky, Holy Trinity-Belopesotsky monasteries, Vvedenskaya and Znamenskaya churches.

In addition, near the modern city there are two ancient settlements from pre-Mongol times - explore the surrounding area as well.
Volokolamsk is also one of the oldest cities in the Moscow region - it was founded in 1135 at the intersection of two rivers - Gorodenka and Lama, along which trade ships crossed the Shosha River to the Volga (where the Volga Reservoir is now located).
And from Lama, trading ships were dragged to four rivers: Moscow, Ruza, Ozerna and Gryada. The Lama portage, which gave the city its name, served as a bone of contention for many centuries: first the Novgorod and Vladimir princes fought for it, then the Novgorod and Moscow princes. Only in the 15th century was it finally annexed to Moscow. And when a rich trading city and its surrounding lands are under siege, what do peaceful inhabitants do? That's right, they hide their goods!

TREASURES OF VOLOKOLAMSK LANDS AND KASHIRA

A pot with a thousand kopecks from the time of Ivan IV was found in Volokolamsk. In the village of Mikulino-Gorodishche, three treasures were found: a small jar with 1200 coins of Ivan IV, a treasure of 350 coins from 1533-1538, and on the Volokolamsk tract near the ancient settlement - a small clay cauldron with coins of Vasily III and Ivan IV. In the village of Lvovo, on a tributary of the Kopljak River, a treasure of 1,300 kopecks from the 15th century was found.
In the vicinity of the ancient settlement near Kashira, a treasure of jewelry and oriental coins with a total weight of about 1.5 kg was found. On the territory of the city of Baskach there used to be a village located on the water Oka trade route: jewelry and oriental coins of the 9th-10th centuries were found here.

TREASURES OF KOLOMENSKOYE LANDS

Another very promising city in terms of treasures is Kolomna, which arose as a port settlement. For a long time it was the most important strategic point on the southern borders of the Moscow principality and the main transit point on the trade route to the southern lands and Ryazan.
In this city in the 16th century, the courts of Moscow sovereigns and princes (the Shuiskys, Romanovs, Golitsyns, Sheremetevs and Tatevs) were located; many rich nobles, boyar children, merchants, archers and rich artisans lived. By the way, in the XIV-XVI centuries, it was here that the troops of the Moscow army gathered, preparing to defend the Russian land from the raids of the Golden Horde (troops also marched from Kolomna to the Kulikovo Field and to the war with Kazan during the time of Ivan the Terrible). And what kind of warrior takes his capital with him to the battlefield?
First of all, you should explore the interfluves - the coastal zones of Kolomenka, Severka, Moskva River and Oka, the surroundings of local monasteries, the village of Stary Bobrenev and the Assumption Cathedral.

In the Kolomna region, in the village of Bokovo, a leather bag with 500 coins from the times of Ivan III and Ivan IV was found.
Silver coins from the late 14th century were found in the village of Gorodishche.

SILVER STORES OF DMITROVSKY DISTRICT

Dmitrov is one of the most ancient cities of Muscovy; until the 16th century it was the richest trading center, the capital of an appanage principality, through which trade routes passed from the capital to the north and to Suzdal and salt, the main value of the Middle Ages, entered the Moscow lands. The Velya, Dubna, Yakhroma and Sestra rivers connected Dmitrov with the Volga: along the Yakhroma, through the Sestra and Dubna rivers, merchant ships reached the Volga trade route leading to Astrakhan and beyond.
Near the mouth of Yakhroma, the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky monastery was founded in 1361, and nearby, in Ust-Pristan, goods were reloaded from small light ships onto large ones intended for long journeys. In the second half of the 16th century, Dmitrov was burned to the ground by the Polish army, could not be rebuilt for a long time, and never rose completely: apparently, many “money papers” with the locations of family treasures burned in the fire, and the victims of the fire had to start life from scratch in a new place . As a result, the trade route gradually moved from Dmitrov to the new, recently founded Arkhangelsk, and the forgotten legacy of the richest city remained lying in the ground...

Silver of Dmitrov and surrounding areas
In the area of ​​Fabrichny Lane, schoolchildren found a treasure - 1,800 silver coins from the early 16th century. Near the Church of the Savior, while digging a vegetable garden, servants found a treasure of 2,000 coins from the time of Ivan IV. Three kilometers from the city, near the village of Vnukovo, under the roots of a stump left from a mighty old tree, a local resident found a small box with coins from the time of Ivan IV. On the former road leading from the Nikolo-Peshnoshsky Monastery to the Trinity-Sergius Posad, near the village of Glazychevo, while plowing a field, a jar with coins of Ivan IV was found.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT NARU!

Today, the shallow tributary of the Oka Nara has not been explored at all by “black archaeologists” for treasures of trade silver - and completely in vain! Ten centuries ago this river was quite navigable; sailing boats loaded with goods from distant eastern lands landed on its banks.
Treasures on its banks were probably buried by many, but so far only one has been found: 227 full-weight Arab silver coins on Kleimenovsky Hill, not far from the modern riverbed. So I advise new treasure hunters to pay special attention to the coastal area of ​​Nara, especially to those places where the coastline used to be. And remember - the river was much wider then than it is now, but the coastal hills, ancient boulders on the banks - in general, natural attractions that serve as excellent landmarks for those who were going to find their treasure later - remained unchanged! It is their surroundings that should be checked with metal detectors first...

ALL ALL THINGS ARE NECESSARY, ALL ALL THINGS ARE IMPORTANT

So, in former times goods were more often transported by ship, so treasures of merchants should be looked for in conspicuous places along the banks of navigable rivers. Keep in mind that the outlines of the banks have changed noticeably over the centuries, so it is worth exploring the twenty-meter coastal zone along straight sections of the riverbed and the area around noticeable boulders and hills.

Of course, in the land of the Moscow region, other treasures are also waiting in the wings, which were hidden by the townspeople during the Tatar-Mongol invasions and during the advance of Napoleon’s troops towards Moscow... But military treasures are a topic for a separate article. For now, we will limit ourselves to the treasures of merchants and peaceful inhabitants: I am sure that the coastal zones of the Moscow River, Oka and many other rivers near Moscow, the vicinity of ancient highways, trade routes, carefully examined with a metal detector, will bring us a lot of surprises!

A FEW MORE IMPORTANT POINTS

A waterway passed along the Yauza, which ended where the Rabotnya River flows into the Yauza: then the ships were dragged 7-8 km to Klyazma, where the city of Mytishchi now stands. Places where a travel fee (myto) was collected from merchants, and their ships landed on land and were dragged to other rivers and could be attacked by robbers along the way, probably collected a rich harvest of treasures, of which only a few have been found.

Zvenigorod, a former fortress on the western approaches to Moscow, is another of the most ancient cities in the Moscow region, in the vicinity of which there are ancient settlements and Slavic mounds.

Ruza, an ancient fortress city on the western borders of Moscow, was located on a trade route that shortened the route from the upper reaches of the Volga to its lower reaches through the Moscow River.

In the vicinity of Mytishchi, three treasures were found: in the village of Krasnaya Polyana, when the river bed was widened, a treasure of Moscow kopecks was found, in the village of Sumardyaevo near the Katuar station, a small jar of silver was dug up, in the village of Sholokhovo, 150 kopecks were found in a clay jug.
In the Klyazma basin in the village of Kildim near the Perlovskaya station, 250 kopecks of Ivan IV were found while digging a pit.
In Bolshevo (formerly a rich village on the banks of the Klyazma), during excavations of mounds, a treasure of Byzantine and German coins of the 10th-11th centuries was found. On the banks of the Klyazma in Shchelkovo (a “transshipment point” from where ships were dragged to Skhodnya and Yauza) a treasure of gold and silver bars was found.
In Ruza, a treasure of 2,000 grand ducal coins was found, buried during the feudal war between the Moscow and Galich princes during the reign of Vasily Vasilyevich the Dark, and southeast of the ancient settlement in the coastal stones - a treasure of cut silver ingots. In the village of Drozdovo, Ruza region, a treasure found in a large mound near the Astafievskaya mill contained 243 coins of the 14th century (mostly money and half-money of Grand Duke Vasily Dmitrievich). 1000 pieces of English and German coins of the 11th century were found in Zvenigorod.

EASTERN AND WESTERN SILVER IN MOSCOW TREASURES

On the territory of the village of Kryukovo, the treasure contained Polish-Lithuanian coins of the 16th century. In Serpukhov, a city with a very long history, a treasure of 400 silver coins from the Ryazan principality of the 15th century was found on Chekhovskaya Street while digging holes for fence supports. In the vicinity of the city of Taldom, 200 silver coins of the Tver Principality were hidden in a treasure. In the basin of the Dubna River, on the trade route that ran from Moscow to the north, in the village of Aibutovo, a treasure of 1000 silver coins and half-shells was found, apparently buried by a Moscow merchant of average income.

TREASURES FOUND ON THE BANKS OF MOSCOW RIVERS

On the Kropotkinskaya embankment in Moscow, while digging the foundation of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, a treasure of the 10th century was discovered - silver Kufic coins. On the embankment of the Moscow River on Varvarka Street, during the construction of the Rossiya Hotel, a treasure of silver rubles and half-rubles from the 14th-15th centuries was found in the ground. Near Kolomenskoye, in the floodplain of the Moscow River, a treasure was discovered - 1,200 pieces of Spanish silver coins.
In the Simonovsky Monastery on the left bank of the Moscow River, past which in the 14th century the Bolvanovsky tract passed, originating from the famous Red Bolvanovsky (Tagansky) Hill, along which merchant caravans traveled through Kolomna to the southern regions, a treasure of oriental coins of the 9th century was discovered. On the same tract, the busiest of trade routes, connecting the eastern lands with ancient Surozh, the main center of Black Sea trade in the 14th-15th centuries, two more treasures were found: the first - not far from the Tagansky Gate on the territory of Marxistskaya Street (370 coins from the time of Ivan IV ); the second - in the Lyublinsky district, at the Tekstilshchiki platform, on the territory of the Gorky state farm. There, a box with 2,350 silver coins was discovered, issued in the 15th century during the reigns of Ivan III and Vasily III.

TREASURES OF SILVER MONEY IN THE CAPITAL

Not far from Teply Stan, southwest of Moscow along the Kaluga Highway, on the site of the former village of Derevlevo, a treasure trove of coins issued in the 14th century during the reign of Vasily I was found. Near the Spaso-Andronikov Monastery, a treasure was found - almost 2000 coins of Ivan III. On the territory of the Kolomensky Monastery (the former palace village of Kolomensky), during restoration work in the Church of the Ascension, 450 coins of Ivan IV were found under the wall of the temple. This treasure was hidden in 1571 during the invasion of the Crimean Khan Dovlet-Girey.
And at the Krutitsky courtyard in Moscow, near the road leading to Kolomenskoye, a treasure of 800 silver coins was found, issued in the 15th century during the reign of Ivan III and his predecessor Vasily the Dark. A treasure was found on Spartakovskaya Street in Moscow - a jug with 180 coins, buried on the territory of the palace village of Eloh in 1530. In the village of Kosino in the Perovsky district of Moscow, while digging a grave, a treasure was found in a cemetery - 45 silver coins of the Grand Duchy of Moscow.
Three vessels with silver coins from the time of Ivan III were found near the fence of the Novodevichy Convent. The place where the treasures were buried was formerly called Samsonov Meadow - there were small tracts, separate groups of houses with vegetable gardens, arable lands and meadows on it. 500 coins of the 15th-16th centuries were found near the Chesme Pond. On Samotechnaya Street, on the site of the palace village of Sushchevo, near Samotechnaya Square, a treasure was found - 100 silver coins of Moscow and Pskov minting, dating back to 1550-1600.

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SOURCE OF INFORMATION AND PHOTO:
Team Nomads
http://obzor-novostei.ru/
ARTICLE based on materials from V. Zaitsev, S.V. Kochetkov (Moscow) and State Historical Museum
OCR - Portal \"Archaeology of Russia\"
group treasure hunters VKontakte
ARCHEOLOGY in the Moscow region
Oracle Magazine
Article by candidate of historical sciences Alexey BEKSHER

The discovery of a treasure always aroused keen interest and fueled the desire of others to set out in search of it. As soon as news appeared about treasures hidden or found, treasure hunters began to appear. Treasures have always gone to random people. Among them were peasants, townspeople, Cossacks, monks and even crowned heads. The first known case of such “luck,” which became a textbook case, had a tragic outcome. In the already mentioned cave, the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery Fedor found a treasure with a great amount of “silver and gold”, with the same “Latin” vessels. The Kiev prince Mstislav, who did not favor the monastery, found out about this and tried to take possession of the find. The monk was tortured, but he never said anything about his secret. Since then, the authorities have always persecuted treasure hunters and, even more so, finders.

In 1524, Novgorodians found a treasure in their church that had been hidden at an earlier time. One can only guess about its size, but it was probably considerable. Either the church or the merchant treasury was hidden for safety in the church of St. Paraskeva Pyatnitsa, the patroness of trade. This was during the time of Vasily III.

Ivan the Terrible was also lucky in Novgorod. A huge treasure was found in the Cathedral of St. Sophia of Novgorod, the patroness of the city. It contained silver bars (Novgorod hryvnia), which were sent to Moscow in several carts.

But they hid money from Peter the Great. In 1898, a huge treasure was found in the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery. The monks saved it for many centuries and hid it specifically under the floor of the cathedral, fearing the arrival of the king. The treasure, hidden from Peter I, lay there for almost 200 years.

In the 20th century entire fortunes were also found. In 1967, a rich treasure was discovered near Simferopol. It consisted of gold and silver jewelry with inserts of stones and pearls, gold coins, silver dishes and many other items. The total number of items was 328. The weight of precious metals was 2 kg. 584 It was buried in the ground at the beginning of the 15th century. during the decline of the once powerful Golden Horde state.

In the past, a treasure for a finder from the common people, poor and powerless, usually turned into big troubles. This is only in the 19th century. began to pay small rewards. In the XVII-XVIII centuries. whole “detective cases” arose about storeroom finds. The poor finder was questioned about how and where he got such luck, whether he handed over the treasure completely or hid some part. The investigation followed all the rules: interrogation, confrontations, torture, eyewitness testimony.

It is difficult to trace the fate of the treasure after such detective cases. Apparently, the treasury took control of them. In the 18th century treasure finds also began to interest collectors who chose the rarest items for themselves. In the 19th century much depended on whose land the treasure was found on: if on private land, then it was disposed of by the landowner, if on public land, then by the state. In Soviet times, all valuables found in the ground were declared a national treasure, for which a reward was due (25%), which took into account not only the cost of the precious metal, but also the scientific significance of the find. At present, the land owner has again intervened in the fate of the treasure, with whom, naturally, it is necessary to negotiate.

The centuries-old experience of treasure hunting has been embodied over time into a kind of “theory” of treasure hunting. The basis for its creation was a simple opposition: some are lucky, but some are not, that is, the treasure is not given to everyone. If the treasure was buried with a vow, then it will go only to the one who fulfills it. From here come all kinds of treasures of legends that have been preserved in many places.

In two works by N.V. Gogol’s “The Evening on the Eve of Ivan Kupala” and “The Enchanted Place” tell about treasures and special signs that help the search. The first tells about the discovery of a treasure by a poor worker Pyotr Bezrodny with the help of evil spirits. The flowering of ferns is mentioned, and the ringing of flowers is heard on the night before Ivan Kupala. Secondly, a special landmark is given by which they look for the treasure - a candle on the grave. The belief that treasure leaves some kind of sign on the surface of the earth has existed for a long time. In the 11th century such a sign was “burning fire.” But even having found such a place, it was possible to get the treasure only through a conspiracy and at a certain time.

Close to such legends are treasure-legends that could belong to real people. The most popular figure among the people was the Cossack Stepan Timofeevich Razin. In the Don steppes and on the Volga there has long been a belief about a treasure hidden for all poor people. It is interesting that the legend also reflected actual events of the 17th century. It turns out that the royal servants were seriously searching for Stepan Razin’s treasure.

When Stepan Razin was executed, his brother Frol was returned to prison. This is what the younger Razin told the investigators: “And he (Stepan Razin) collected all his letters, put them in a money jug, and tarred them, buried them in the ground on an island in the Don River on Prorva under a willow tree, and that willow tree is crooked in the middle, and about its dense willows, and there are two or three miles around the island.”

The place was very suitable for hiding treasure. Moreover, were the letters alone put in the jug? The jug is money. They rushed to that island to look for Razin’s luggage. They searched, but did not find.

The special characteristics of a storage place, known since ancient times, turned out to be similar to modern ideas. True, now they don’t look so mysterious: arable land, an ancient Russian settlement, the ruins of a manor’s estate. In fairness, we note that, although not treasures, but individual finds, they are found in such places.

Not only the signs have become different. The appearance of the treasure hunter has also changed. The search for treasure (or antiquities) began to be called instrumental. It is carried out using technical means and resembles a mine clearance operation. Now both archaeologists and amateur searchers use the latest electronic metal detectors or metal detectors in their work.

Increasing interest in the historical past and the technical equipment of treasure hunters, who have their own ideas about the goals and objectives of search work, create serious difficulties for scientists. Today, there are two categories of treasure hunters interested in searching for antiquities - amateur searchers and collectors, on the one hand, and professional historians, archaeologists, numismatists, on the other. Amateurs always behave actively and greatly disturb researchers. After all, they look for treasures in different ways and for different purposes.

Strange as it may seem, but numismatists of the 18th-19th centuries. I wasn't particularly interested in treasures. The treasures were a source of replenishment of numismatic collections with rare coins. The rest went to the money yards. There are known archival documents telling about the fate of many treasures sent for melting down. Only when numismatics turned from collecting into a science, and the subject of its study became not the coin as such, even rare, but monetary circulation in its entirety, did the treasures come to the attention of numismatists. Numismatic scientists became treasure hunters. The search for treasures went everywhere: in archives, in old documents, in reports of archaeological expeditions, in newspapers. They were searched for through oral traditions and letters. All received data was compiled into special reports and recorded on maps. Local historians continue to provide great assistance in searching for treasures.

The treasure is a multifaceted object for study. Improving research methodology often leads to a new “reading” of it. Treasures, no matter how small or large, dwarfs or giants, no matter where they are found and no matter who finds them, are a national and scientific property. The idea that after studying and publishing articles they end up in museum storerooms is not entirely true. Science never stands still, and old treasures found long ago can once again appear on a researcher’s desk.

In former times, according to the instructions, a commission was created, assessed the treasure, and gave a quarter of its value to the finder. But it was not determined who is responsible for delivering the treasure to this very commission.

Before the revolution, especially since the 50s of the 19th century, the following practice was in effect: the internal affairs bodies were responsible for everything. A police officer arrived, described the treasure, and then a report was sent to St. Petersburg, where the archaeological commission was located.

A commission representative came from the capital and decided on the spot what to do with the treasure. As a rule, the most interesting coins were selected, and the rest were melted down. Then they paid a certain amount to the finder of the treasure.

The main thing is that the treasures were recorded, and commission reports were published from year to year, which included a special section on treasures. And in the archives, a file was opened for each treasure - with a report, with drawings, with inventories.

Today is complete chaos. Last year, one treasure hunter in the village of Volnino, Vladimir Region, using a mine detector, found a treasure of amazing scientific significance. The first, apparently, quarter of the 15th century, the time of the reign of the Grand Duke of Moscow Vasily the Dark. 318 coins. Not a single such treasure has reached us in its entirety.

Kochetkov offered the find to the Historical Museum for 5 thousand dollars, and it was worth the money. Only the museum didn’t have them. It was also fortunate that the Germans, who organized the exhibition in the halls of the museum, allocated the required amount as compensation for the services.

A treasure is a certain complex of coins, formed in one place, at a certain time and reflecting the features of the monetary economy in a certain historical period. At one time we even had the following formula: “A treasure is a snapshot of the monetary circulation of that period.”

This, however, is not entirely true. But the standard of living of the population is really immediately visible. In Moscow, say, the treasures are small. It is clear that money was saved by people whom we would today classify as middle class. Posadskys, let's say...

The money was hidden by those who received a permanent cash salary. Clerks, clerks, church ministers, archers, merchants. These were very modest savings. Unlike treasure troves, for example, the one found in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. When Peter I was going to confiscate valuables from the churchmen, they hid both gold and silver coins in huge vessels in the church choir. This treasure was found at the beginning of the last century. Unfortunately, I never came across such treasures.

The earth is saturated with treasures not only here, but also in Europe, especially in the south. In Bulgaria, for example, dig in the ground and you will find a treasure; in Yugoslavia. That is, where there were wars, where there were very active trade routes.

The most coin-rich areas are the Moscow region, Ryazan, and Tula. There are a lot of treasures in the Novgorod region, and these are treasures mainly from the turn of the 16th-17th centuries.

And, of course, a huge number of treasures appear in the 18th century. These are treasures of copper five-kopeck coins, which is associated with the introduction of paper banknotes in 1769. It was money with a forced exchange rate, and very soon it became worthless. The peasants began to bury copper.

In Europe, treasure was buried in the ground or hidden in hidden places only in case of danger. For us, regardless of the situation in the country. Because everyone, from the last serf to the closest boyar, falconer or stable keeper, had absolutely no rights.

At any moment, the Tsar-Father or the Governor could send you on the rack. Therefore, as soon as a person had money, he hid it. Besides, money in Russia has always been dead. They were not allowed into business, since commodity-money relations were poorly developed.

If bourgeois development began only in 1860, what can we talk about? Merchants, of course, put money into circulation. And the average person simply hid them. Plus the fact that Russia is a wooden country. Fires burned, and with them property. The treasure remained.

And it is no coincidence that in Rus' they found a special form for storing treasure - a small container. These are round pots with a narrow neck. Black and polished, as a rule. They withstood high pressure and did not allow moisture to pass through (they were filled with wax or clogged with a wooden stopper).

However, even today we rarely take money to banks, preferring a money-box...

...Petka and I kept dreaming of finding a treasure and buying a mountain of “cockerels”.

I think no one will argue that the emotional meaning of the word “treasure” somehow does not agree with its direct interpretation - “hidden, most often buried things in the ground, not taken by the owner and later discovered by chance.” A definition that ignores the emotional stress experienced by the person hiding (how often do you bury valuables in the ground?) and the delight experienced by the finder looks rather dry and inarticulate. Let's try to find our own definition. Treasure is something that is hidden on purpose, with intent, and not lost. Thus, it is a rather specific object of study. The historical value of treasures found at different times in the northeastern Moscow region is difficult to assess.

The search for specific data on the found treasures, usually starting with local history “secrets and riddles,” ends up in the UAC, KSIIMK, IRAO, and even in the AAE with PSRL, which is even more “fun.” Below we present the most complete information possible on 40 registered treasures found from 1876 to 1985 in the Shchelkovsky, Pushkinsky, Balashikha, Mytishchi, Pavlovo-Posad, Orekhovo-Zuevsky and Noginsky districts of the Moscow region. The material is ordered by the time of discovery of the treasures...

Some of the treasures listed below on the map from the book.Veksler A.G. Melnikova A.S. Moscow treasures. M., 1973

In 1876 at the churchyard cemetery Zagarye Bogorodsky district (nowadays the village of Novozagarye, Averkievsky village, Pavlovo-Posad district), not far from the place where the St. Nicholas Church, built in 1628, which was dismantled in 1850, stood, a treasure of silver coins of an unknown date, weighing about 6 pounds, was found (approx. 2.26 kg.) .

In 1887 in the village Stulovo(formerly Bogorodsky district of Shalovskaya volost, now the village of Stulovo, Akseno-Butyrsky village, Noginsk district) 1157 silver coins were found. This is all the information about the treasure.

In 1890, in the former palace village Pushkino(now Pushkino) a treasure of coins was found XVII century. It consisted of 819 copper coins from the time of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1629-1676). The treasure was transferred to the Moscow provincial government, and from there, together with the “relation” dated November 1, 1890 (No. 9020), it was forwarded to the Moscow Archaeological Society with a request to identify and evaluate them. It was decided to “notify the provincial government that these coins are Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich’s pennies, very ordinary and not rare.”

In 1895 in the village Korovino Tereninsky volostBogorodsky district (now the village of Korovino, Orekhovo-Zuevsky district) a treasure of coins of Mikhail Fedorovich Romanov (1596-1645) was found in a jar. The capsule broke, and part of the coins, in the amount of 240 copies, was transferred to the Imperial Russian Archaeological Society. Around the same 1895, 8 pounds 6 spools (approx. 4 kg.) silver Russian coins XVII century was found in the village Vachutino Bogorodsky district (not far from the village of Glinka in the vicinity of Balashikha) [3]. Both treasures were acquired by the Imperial Archaeological Commission in the same year.

Unique in the region is a treasure of Byzantine and German coins of the 10th-11th centuries, discovered by students of the Archaeological Institute in 1896 during excavations of one of the burial mounds near the village Bolshevo, since 1963 included within the city of Korolev. A silver coin of the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus (905-959), a coin of Emperor Romanos II the Younger (938-963) with a soldered eye and a fragment of a poorly preserved German pfennig were found here. The treasure was buried in the soil near Moscow in the 11th century. The first documentary news about Bolshevo appears in handwritten documents only five centuries later - in 1567.

The next year, 1897, turned out to be especially rich in treasures. Then in the village Barkovo(formerly Dmitrovsky district, now the village of Barkovo, Tsarevsky village, Pushkin district), a treasure was found below the confluence of the Torgoshi River with the Klyazma, consisting of 152 copper Russian coins of the 18th century. The coins were examined by the Imperial Archaeological Commission and returned to the finder of the treasure. That same year in the village Black(now in the Balashikha City District), a treasure was found consisting of 52 silver Russian coins of the 18th - early 19th centuries. The treasure contained 48 rubles and 4 half rubles. The coins were returned to the finder. In the village Khotkovo Dmitrovsky district (Khotkovo, Sergiev Posad district) a treasure of silver coins was discovered. Five coins dated back to the time of Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. The coins were transferred to the Archaeological Institute in St. Petersburg. In the same 1897, in the village of Nasyrev, Bogorodsky district. (now – d. Nosyrevo Kuznetsovsky settlement Pavlovo-Posad district) a treasure was found consisting of 141 copper Russian coins of the 18th century. It is known that during the General Survey of the area, which took place in these parts in 1768, the village, together with 29 neighboring villages, was part of a vast and rich estate that belonged to the chief prosecutor, a participant in the coup of 1762, Vsevolod Alekseevich (1737-1797), chambers -junker Ilya Alekseevich (1739-c. 1787) and Life Guards second lieutenant of the Izmailovsky regiment Sergei Alekseevich (1751-1822) Vsevolozhsky.

In 1898 in the village Chapel Zagarskaya volost of Bogorodsky district. (Chasovnya village, Averkievsky Pavlovo-Posad district) 198 copper nickels of Catherine II were found. In 1769, the village of Chapel belonged to a large estate centered in the village of Nikolskoye, which belonged to the widow of General-Chief Nikolai Mikhailovich Leontyev (1717-1769 ) - Ekaterina Alexandrovna and her son Mikhail (1740-1787).

In 1901, on a village street Mizinovo In the Aniskinsky rural settlement of the Shchelkovsky district, a treasure of “merchant origin” was accidentally discovered, consisting of 107 silver coins of Tsars Mikhail Fedorovich and Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov. In the same year, the treasure was sent to the funds of the Minusinsk Museum of Local Lore.

In 1902, near the village Cherkizovo(Tarasovskaya platform, Pushkinsky district) when removing an earthen mound (mound), a treasure consisting of 500 coins was discovered XVI - XVII centuries, which included coins from the time of Ivan IV Grozny (1530-1584) and Mikhail Fedorovich. The treasure was hidden in the middle XVII century.

In 1908, while digging holes for planting trees in a town near Moscow Pavlovsky-Posad a clay pot was found with a rich “merchant treasure”, consisting of 5 silver rubles from the reigns of Elizabeth Petrovna 1741-1762 and Catherine II 1762-1796 and one pound of 30 and a half pounds of copper nickels of Catherine II [about 30 kilograms]. Apparently, the find caused a massive stir. An interesting note placed on the pages of the newspaper “Russkoe Slovo” dated August 27 (14), 1908, told how in the same Pavlovsky Posad “Two Persians offered the local merchant Bulochnikov to buy a treasure from them - ancient gold coins. Bulochnikov agreed. They made a deal: for 10 pounds of treasure, Bulochnikov had to pay 1,800 rubles. At the suggestion of the Persians, he arrived at the Gzhel station, Moscow-Nizhny Novgorod railway. dor., where, having received a bag of gold from them, he paid them 1800 rubles. Arriving home, he found mugs of iron and tin in the bag. The third day at the Ramenskoye station, Moscow-Kazan railway. dor., the Persians were detained. The 1,800 rubles they received from Bulochnikov were found on them.”[ cm .] .

In 1912 in the village Pareevo(now the village of Staropareevo in the urban settlement of Fryanovo, Shchelkovsky district), local residents found a treasure of 20 Russian silver rubles from 1724-1755, 1 pound 63 spools of pre-reform silver kopecks from the time of Peter I (approximately 2000-2500 pieces) and one Spanish thaler 1805 of the year .

In 1924 in Shchelkovo, on the left bank of the Klyazma, a treasure was discovered, which included silver ingots of the 12th century. It is believed that this is the only treasure of all-Russian “grivnas” found in the vicinity of Moscow.

Until 1924 in the village Mishnevo(rural Trubinsky village, Shchelkovsky district) a local resident found a pot with silver coins from the time of Ivan III Vasilyevich (1440-1505). A significant proportion of coins, according to A.A. Ilyina, “went to pieces.” In the book by A.A. Ilyin “Topography of treasures of ancient Russian coins” X - XI centuries and coins of the specific period", published in Leningrad in 1924, the name of the village was mistakenly written as "Mshchinevo", which gave rise to a number of researchers to identify this treasure with the treasure discovered in 1901 in the village of Mizinovo, also located on the Vore River, near Mishneva. In the note to the mention of this treasure A.A. Ilyin wrote: “An interesting treasure, unfortunately, not described; It is not possible to determine from the Hermitage collection which coins belong to this treasure.” However, the treasure from Mizinov has been described (see links). In addition, the Mizinovsky treasure, according to its description, did not contain coins from the time of Ivan III . We have to conclude that we are talking about two different treasures.

In 1930 or 1931 in the village Sholokhovo Mytishchi district (now the entrance to the rural village of Fedoskinskoye), while digging a hole for planting apple trees on the right bank of the Uchi River, near the stream flowing into it, a clay pot with ancient coins was found XVI - XVII centuries in the amount of 150 copies. The treasure has not been described to this day.

A small capsule from a treasure of 1937 in the village of Nikiforovo. N.D. Metz, 1949

The real discovery was the treasure of the beginning XVII century, discovered in 1937 in the village Nikiforovo Shchelkovo volost, Moscow district, on the territory of the collective farm named after Stalin (now the village of Nikiforovo, Medvezhye-Ozersky rural settlement, Shchelkovo district, Moscow region). 379 coins from the times of Ivan IV the Terrible, Fedor I Ioannovich (1557-1598), Boris Godunov (1552-1605), Tsar Dmitry Ivanovich (False Dmitry I ; mind. 1606) and Vasily Ivanovich Shuisky (1552-1612), as well as one coin of a type not found before 1949, were in a “small flattened capsule with a slight elevation of the neck,” 4.7 centimeters high, polished, pinkish in color. The treasure, buried in the ground during the Time of Troubles, entered the Moscow State Historical Museum (No. 79525).

According to Pavlovo-Posad local historian M.P. Smirnova: “November 14, 1939 on the central section of the Pavlovsky state farm (near the city of Pavlovsky Posad) worker Borovkov, while digging a pit for greenhouses, discovered a small jar with a small silver coin minted in the first half of the seventeenth century. The coins are oblong in shape, about the size of a watermelon seed. On one side there is a half-erased inscription with the name of the first tsar from the House of Romanov - Mikhail Fedorovich (reigned from 1613 to 1645), on the other side - the coat of arms of old Moscow - a rider on a horse slaying a dragon with a sword. Judging by the wear of the coins, it can be assumed that they were in circulation for a long time before they ended up in the coveted box. The pot was made by the potters to be extremely durable, and it took a lot of effort for those who found it to open it. The vessel is severely damaged. Of the 260 coins, some are drilled."

A jug from a treasure of 1941 near the city of Zagorsk. N.D. Metz, 1949

In 1941, in the vicinity of the city of Zagorsk (now - the city of Sergiev Posad) another “news of the Time of Troubles” was found - a small jug 9.9 cm high with a wavy ornament. with coins from the times of Ivan IV and Boris Godunov. Part of the treasure (34 coins) entered the State Historical Museum (No. 81268).

In June 1947, in a now defunct village Sumardiaevo A box with coins of Ivan IV the Terrible was found in the Mytishchi district near the Katuar railway station.

In 1948, in the village of Uspensky, Noginsk district (now within the boundaries of Noginsk) a box with coins of Ivan IV was found.

In the early 50s, while digging a pit in the village Kildim Mytishchi district, near the Perlovskaya platform, a treasure of 250 coins from the time of Ivan IV was found. Part of the treasure, in the amount of 31 copies, entered the State Historical Museum.

In 1953 in the village 3tin Zagorsky district (Khotkovsky village, Sergiev Posad district), excavator operator A. A. Turchankov, in a quarry landslide, found a jar with a large number of coins from the times of Ivan IV and Fyodor Ioannovich. According to experts, the treasure was buried in 1585-1590. Part of the treasure, consisting of 295 coins with a total weight of 148.24 grams, entered the State Historical Museum (No. 88693).

In 1955, again a priceless treasure was discovered in the city Pavlovsky-Posad. This time, a jar with 487 coins weighing a total of 215.03 grams was found by local schoolchildren. The treasure contained eight coins from the times of Vasily II the Dark 1425-1462, the appanage principalities of Yaroslavl, Serpukhov, Galitsky (3 copies), Ivan IV, Fedor Ivanovich, Boris Fedorovich, Vasily Ivanovich, Swedish invaders in Novgorod, Mikhail Fedorovich, Alexei Mikhailovich, Fedor Alekseevich, Ivan Alekseevich, Pyotr Alekseevich until 1696. The treasure entered the State Historical Museum (No. 87697).

In 1956 in the village Krasnaya Polyana In the Mytishchi district (now the Lobnya microdistrict), while expanding the river bed, excavator operator P.I. Zolotilov discovered a treasure trove of silver coins of Ivan IV the Terrible, minted before 1547. 62 coins from the treasure, transferred to the State Historical Museum, received inventory number 94218.

In 1959 in Zagorsk (city. Sergiev Posad) while planting potatoes, a local resident found a gray polished pot with 1034 coins from the times of Ivan IV (349 copies), Fyodor I Ioannovich (170 copies), Boris Godunov (257 copies), False Dmitry I (26 copies), Vasily Shuisky (84 copies), Vladislav Sigismundovich (34 copies), militia with the name of Fyodor Ioannovich (83 copies), poorly preserved (31 copies). According to experts, the treasure fell into the ground at the very beginning of 1613. Today it is kept in the Sergiev Posad State Historical and Art Museum (inv. No. 1006, num. No. 12295).

In December 1960 in the city of Kaliningrad (current Korolev) during the construction of a house on the site of a former swamp, in a dump of earth thrown out of a trench, they found a jar with 1683 coins weighing about a kilogram. The treasure entered the State Historical Museum (No. 97318). The treasure, dated 1606-1607, included coins of Ivan IV, Fyodor Ivanovich, Boris Fedorovich, Fyodor Godunov, Dmitry Ivanovich, Vasily Ivanovich.

In May 1961 in the village Koroskovo 3agorsky district (Khotkovsky village, Sergiev Posad district), local resident F. Filippov found a treasure in two gray clay pots on his estate. The treasure was discovered in parts: one pot in 1961, the other in 1962. The treasure contained 2,208 copies (about 100 kilograms) of copper coins - two-kopeck coins and nickels from the time of Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II. The treasure is kept in the Sergiev Posad State Historical and Art Museum (No. 1007/number 12432; 1009/number 12496).

In the same 1961, apparently in the same village Koroskovo, called “Keskovo” in reference books (there was no village with that name in the Zagorsk region), in a large jug of gray clay, collective farmers found a treasure of copper coins of Catherine II weighing 40 kilograms. The treasure is kept in the Sergiev Posad State Historical and Art Museum

In February 1963 in the village Svatkovo Zagorsky district (the village of Svatkovo, Bereznyakovsky village, Sergiev Posad district), while digging a trench, a treasure of coins of Ivan IV was found. 12 coins from the treasure (9 kopecks and 3 money) entered the Sergiev Posad State History and Art Museum (stored under No. 1010/12558).

In September 1966 in Kaliningrad (city. Korolev) during excavation work, copper coins of Catherine II were found near a bucket. The further fate of the treasure is unknown. That same autumn (1966) in the village Bolshoye Bunkovo In the Noginsk district, on Lenin Street near house No. 111, a treasure was found in an iron pot, consisting of 4 kilograms of copper coins of Catherine II.

In June 1968 in the village Heaps Zagorsky district (Shemetovsky village, Sergiev Posad district), a treasure of 185 two- and five-kopeck coins from the time of Elizabeth Petrovna and Catherine II was found in a vegetable garden. The treasure entered the Sergiev Posad State History and Art Museum (No. 1032/number 12876).

In July 1970 in the city Noginsk In the ruins of an old house, in a wooden casket, a treasure of 116 copper coins of various denominations from the times from Peter I to Alexander I was found. The treasure is stored in the State Historical Museum (No. 101754). In August of the same 1970, a treasure of 95 silver coins from 1722-1762 and one copper coin was discovered, as indicated in the book by A.G. Veksler - A.S. Melnikova, on the Chemodanovka farm in the Mytishchi district, and the treasure entered the State Historical Museum (No. 101766). It is not known exactly which settlement is meant by “Chemodanovka” (maybe Chelobitevo?).

In the fall of 1971 in Zagorsk (city. Sergiev Posad) on the territory of the former priest's yard, about 150 copper and silver coins of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, up to 1915 inclusive, were found. Among the silver coins there were rubles from 1724 and 1738.

The year 1974 brought a new, unexpected discovery. In the city of Losino-Petrovsky, on the territory of the estate Nikolskoye-Timonino, which from approx. 1890, owned by the founder of the Timonin wool weaving factory (1882), manufacturer Alexander Petrovich Belov, while carrying out bulldozer work, workers R. Mikheev and Yu. Shirokov found a glass jar wrapped in a newspaper dated August 21, 1918, which contained a bundle of bank notes, shares and insurance certificates in the amount of 379,000 rubles. There was also the will of A.P. Belova. The treasure was transferred to the Local History Museum of the city of Losino-Petrovsky. The manor house itself, not far from which the treasure was discovered, died in a fire in 1992.

In 1983, a village resident Mityanino(now part of the village of Sverdlovsky, Shchelkovsky district) A.S. Bazin, on his personal plot, located near the Monino station, came across a treasure of 217 coins from the time of Ivan IV Grozny.

And in May 1985 in the village Kostyunino at the village Bogoslovo (Grebnevsky rural settlement, Shchelkovsky district) discovered a small jar with 916 coins dating back to the end of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich, weighing 430 grams. The find entered the State Historical Museum.

At the end of 1985, a large treasure of “two thousand gold and silver coins with double-headed eagle XVIII century" was discovered in the village Vozdvizhensky(Lozovsky village, Sergiev Posad district). The coins were in two tightly iron-bound chests. The location of the treasure is unknown.

I end this rather difficult study with a wonderful work by the contemporary poet Yulia Simbirskaya:

Somewhere on a wild island
Some wild pirate
In the strawberry bushes
Hid my fabulous treasure.
In an old tin box
There are plenty of rare treasures:
Robin feather,
Domino chip
Glass, candy wrapper, rope,
Pebbles, nail, float,
All this is cleverly hidden.
Everything is locked.
Somewhere on a wild island,
On the left, behind the house, where the garden is
In the strawberry bushes
A pirate is looking for a tin.

Note

1. Kachanova V.I. Topography of treasures in Moscow and its environs. /Archaeological monuments of Moscow and Moscow region. M., 1954, p. 143.

3.Report of the Imperial Archaeological Commission for 1895. St. Petersburg, 1897, p. 69.

4. Vasmer R.R. List of coin finds recorded by the Numismatics and Glyptics Section in 1920-1925. / Communications of the State Academy of History of Material Culture. Issue 2. L., 1929, p. 229.

5. Kropotkin V.V.. Treasures of Byzantine coins on the territory of the USSR. M., 1962. p. 25.

8. Kachanova V.I. Topography of treasures in Moscow and its environs. /Archaeological monuments of Moscow and Moscow region. M., 1954, p. 143.

9. Bader. HE. Materials for the archaeological map of Moscow. /Materials and research on the archeology of the USSR. Issue 7. M., 1947, p. 99.

What treasures does the land of Russia and Belarus conceal to this day?

WHAT HOW MUCH

Since ancient times, relations between treasure hunters and the state have been tense, to put it mildly. The Byzantine Emperor Justinian, in his code (mid-6th century), introduced a law according to which half of the found values ​​belonged to the one who found them, and the other half to the owner of the designated territory.

What laws apply to treasure hunting in modern Belarus and Russia?

We look at the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus, article 215 - “Appropriation of found property.” It reads, in particular: “The misappropriation of knowingly found someone else's property or treasure on an especially large scale is punishable by community service, or a fine, or arrest for up to three months.

Particularly large amounts are considered to be 250 basic wages.

The Civil Code of Belarus determines what is considered treasure in this republic and how to deal with it. Here's what Article 234 says:

1. Treasure, that is, money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or, by virtue of an act of legislation, has lost the right to them, becomes the property of the person who owns the property (land plot, buildings, etc.). etc.), where the treasure was hidden, and the person who discovered the treasure, in equal shares, unless otherwise established by agreement between them.

If a treasure is discovered by a person who has carried out excavations or searches for valuables without the consent of the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was hidden, the treasure must be transferred to the owner of the land plot or other property in which the treasure was discovered.

2. In the event of the discovery of a treasure containing material objects that have distinctive spiritual, artistic and (or) documentary merits and meet one of the criteria for selecting material objects for assigning them the status of historical and cultural value, such objects are subject to transfer to state ownership. In this case, the owner of the land plot or other property where the treasure was hidden, and the person who discovered the treasure, have the right to receive together a reward in the amount of fifty percent of the value of the treasure. The remuneration is distributed among these persons in equal shares, unless otherwise established by agreement between them.

If such a treasure is discovered by a person who carried out excavations or searches for valuables without the consent of the owner of the property where the treasure was hidden, remuneration to this person is not paid and goes entirely to the owner.

3. The rules of this article do not apply to persons whose work or official duties included carrying out excavations and searches aimed at discovering treasure.

What about in Russia?

Federal Law No. 245-FZ of July 23, 2013 introduced a new article into the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation providing for liability for failure to comply with legal requirements when objects of cultural value are found in the ground.

The newly introduced article 243-2, which came into force on July 25, 2015, provides for liability for the performer of earthworks, construction, reclamation, economic or other work or archaeological field work carried out on the basis of a permit (open sheet) for evading the mandatory transfer to the state of discovered when carrying out such work on objects of special cultural value, or cultural assets on a large scale (if the value of the discovered objects exceeds 100,000 rubles).

Such items include historical, artistic values, ancient books, publications of special interest (historical, artistic, scientific and literary), separately or in collections; rare manuscripts and documentary monuments; archives, including photo, phono, film, video archives; unique and rare musical instruments; postage stamps, other philatelic materials, separately or in collections; ancient coins, orders, medals, seals and other collectibles; rare collections and specimens of flora and fauna, items of interest to such branches of science as mineralogy, anatomy and paleontology.

The special cultural value of objects is an evaluative concept and is established on the basis of an expert opinion.

Violation of these laws is considered a crime for which criminal liability is provided, including imprisonment for up to 6 years.

And here is what the Russian Civil Code says about treasures:

Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation – “Treasure”.

1. Treasure, that is, money or valuable objects buried in the ground or otherwise hidden, the owner of which cannot be identified or has lost the right to them by force of law, becomes the property of the person who owns the property (land plot, building, etc. .), where the treasure was hidden, and the person who discovered the treasure, in equal shares, unless otherwise established by agreement between them.

In general, Article 233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation and 234 of the Civil Code of the Republic of Belarus practically coincide.

To summarize, in recent years both Russia and Belarus have begun (legislatively) to take the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of their ancestors seriously. And treasure hunters in Russia and Belarus should be determined from the very first minute to get only half of what they found. As they say, don’t sin, give your due to the state and sleep well...

And this is a completely humane law, if we remember that in the USSR the finder of a treasure was entitled to only 25 percent of its estimated value.

NOT HIDDEN FROM A GOOD LIFE

A huge number of treasures are buried in the ground, hidden in basements and attics, under floorboards and in the walls of houses, not only in ancient times, but also in the period from 1917 to the end of the 50s. Constant searches, seizure of valuables, denunciations and arrests forced millions of people - both in Russia and Belarus - to carefully bury their relics, savings and jewelry.

While changing the floors in a communal apartment, one of the Moscow residents found three metal bars under the floorboard. I rubbed them with sandpaper and was stunned: the bars weighing 2.5 kg were made of red gold! Old-timers said that in 1917 a banker lived here.

The war years, especially the 41st - 42nd, were also abundant in the formation of new treasures. In the confusion of general retreat, panic and looting, some managed to pocket and bury whole pounds of gold, jewelry, and antiques. Then the owner of the treasure went to the front, died, and no one ever used the hidden gold.

Like thousands of years ago, in our time treasure hunts are still surrounded by a mysterious flair, mysticism and superstition. Searchers - both intellectuals and not very educated ones - all, as one, indisputably believe that on many hidden treasures there is a taboo - a witchcraft conspiracy that prevents the treasure hunter from discovering the “cache”. They say that in the old days, when burying gold and silver, people turned to sorcerers, and they created a kind of security zone around the treasure. And he can only open up to someone who knows the “cock word” or has a magical gap-grass.

What can I say? Convincing people of such beliefs is a thankless task.

Among treasure hunters, not everyone is obsessed with the thirst for enrichment. For many, this is an exciting adventure, a shake-up after the daily home routine. Oddly enough, it is they who are the most popular search engines, and not the calculating professionals - the so-called “black archaeologists”.

Statistics say that over 90 percent of ancient treasures are discovered by chance: in the village during the sowing season, during construction, during the demolition of dilapidated houses or the relocation of village log houses. However, professional treasure hunters firmly believe that the extraction of treasures from the bowels of the earth, from the bottom of rivers, lakes and seas can be put on stream and planned with the utmost degree of probability.

GOMEL SURPRISE

In Europe, from time immemorial, treasure hunters were mainly adventurers, losers and slackers dreaming of easy money. And in Rus', even monarchs did not disdain to search for hidden treasures. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, Tsar Ivan the Terrible was simply “overwhelmed” with a thirst for treasure hunting. Moreover, the king had a certain mystical ability to “smell” treasures hidden from human eyes.

This is what the Novgorod chronicler of the 16th century wrote down: “How Grand Duke John Vasilyevich arrived from Moscow to Novgorod and, unknown how, found out the ancient treasury, hidden in the wall by the creator of St. Sophia, Prince Vladimir the Great (grandson of St. Vladimir, the baptist of Rus' - Author), and unknown to be no one about this, less by hearing, less by writing. And then they arrived at night and began to torture the cleric Sofeisk and the sexton about the treasury, and tormented them a lot, without testing them, even though they didn’t know. And the prince himself came to the sunrise, where I climbed onto the church floors, and at sunrise, on the right side, he ordered the wall to be broken down, and a great treasure woke up, ancient ingots worth a hryvnia, and half a ruble, and a ruble, and having filled the carts, he sent to Moscow."

Ivan the Terrible found many treasures within Rus'; for years he studied legends and chronicles, using them to determine the location of hiding places. And he himself hid a lot of treasures, which are still being sought unsuccessfully by both official and “black” archaeologists.

Peter the Great was a passionate collector of antiquities. He took very seriously all sorts of legends, rumors and even songs that mentioned at least something about hidden treasures. The Emperor issued a special decree on the purchase of antiquities from the population and their transfer to the Kunstkamera. The sister of Peter the Great, Ekaterina Alekseevna, also dabbled in treasure hunting. She tried to find hidden treasures using “planetary notebooks,” that is, astrology. She turned to sorcerers, sent servants to tear up graves at midnight, so that the dead man would announce the treasure...

The most successful treasure hunter in Belarus was Count Nikolai Petrovich Rumyantsev. In addition to the fact that at the beginning of the 19th century he served as chancellor and chairman of the State Council of the Russian Empire, the count was engaged in collecting antiquities. Particularly famous is N.P. Rumyantsev gained fame as a collector of early printed and handwritten books, coins, archaeological objects, and works of art. The count bequeathed the largest collection in Russia to the state. After his death in St. Petersburg, a museum was opened in his house on the English Embankment. And in that museum there were many objects that he found during the reconstruction of his huge estate near Gomel and the Gomel palace.

Of course, this prominent educator was not specifically involved in treasure hunting. It was only “passing”. How? The fact is that one of the areas of activity of N.P. Rumyantsev was the creation of a new image of Gomel. In 1796, after the death of his father, Nikolai Petrovich inherited the Gomel estate and began large-scale construction work here. At the beginning of the 19th century, a square was laid out in the city center, from which the three main streets Proboynaya (now Sovetskaya), Sadovaya (Lenin Avenue), and Feldmarshalskaya (Proletarskaya) radiated out. Public buildings were erected on the central square: a guest courtyard, a town hall, a church, a revenue school, and a little further - the Peter and Paul Cathedral, a house for the owner to live in, a house for summer residence, better known to Gomel residents as the “Hunting Lodge,” German and Russian taverns. On Proboynaya Street a stone hospital and pharmacy, a Lancaster school, and a Trinity Church appeared. A little to the side, on the high bank of the river, a lyceum building rose. And all this is due to the personal zeal of Count Rumyantsev!

It was during these works that priceless treasures of the Belarusian land were found.

Nikolai Petrovich wrote in 1821: “These days, in the middle of Gomel itself, a pot with silver coins was dug out of the ground... They are all the same and from the year one thousand six hundred and twenties, coins of the Polish king Sigismund.” A year later, he finds in Gomel a treasure of gold coins from the Arab Caliphate of the 9th-10th centuries. Where did they come from? This means that even before the Baptism of Rus', a trade route from Europe to Asia ran through the Gomel lands! This was a major historical discovery.

Rumyantsev bought treasures found by peasants in Vitebsk and Trakai. N.P. Rumyantsev died in 1826, leaving a collection of one and a half thousand coins from various eras. Here is an example when an archaeologist-treasure hunter works not for profit, but for posterity.

In Belarus, to this day they are looking for Napoleon’s gold along the banks of the Berezina River and nearby lakes. It's here somewhere... But where? I wish I knew.

After the abolition of serfdom in 1861, a saying appeared in Rus' and Belarus: “Getting rich is like finding a moneybox.” The fact is that this was a period of mass discovery of ancient treasures. The peasants were given ownership of the inconvenient lands - uncultivated lands where previously, many centuries ago, there had been settlements. Finding a pot, a small jar or a jug with gold and silver was considered almost the most common thing. The procedure was established as follows: if you find a treasure, go register it with the police officer, he will call the learned men, and if there is nothing historically valuable in the find, then take it all for yourself. And if an object was confiscated for science, the finder was given monetary compensation. One peasant, plowing his allotment, came across the silver-lined helmet of Grand Duke Yaroslav Vsevolodovich, for which he received a bonus of 5 rubles (the cost of a cow).

Let us remember: Count Rumyantsev found a treasure in the middle of what was then Gomel. But it turns out that even in the midst of present-day Moscow, you can find buried wealth! Here's a case. For almost a century he lay on Volkhonka, exactly opposite the Museum of Fine Arts. A.S. Pushkin, a stone-boulder, until some idle citizen took it into his head to take it and turn it over. And what do you think? Under the boulder he found two revolvers with cartridges, two pairs of cadet shoulder straps and buttonholes from the Alexander Infantry School, and most importantly, a note-will. As it turned out from the text, two cadets, during a shootout with the Bolsheviks in the fall of 1917, found themselves cut off from their own and were forced to get rid of evidence of their belonging to the White army. The note also contained an account number and password for withdrawing a large deposit at the Bank of England - one of the junkers bequeathed his entire fortune to the one who found the note. And the lucky one received the money according to the cadet’s will!

DIVERS SEARCHING

Territories of historical value are often not fenced or patrolled - come and dig as much as you have the strength and patience to do. There is a formal plunder of the unknown heritage of our ancestors.

In the early 90s, Ryazan archaeologists discovered the Zarechensky burial ground of the fourth century. Gold, silver and copper jewelry, weapons, and vessels were kept there. While archaeologists begged the state for money to study the burial ground, it was gutted to the ground by hordes of treasure hunters.

The treasure can be found in almost every region of Russia and Belarus. More than a thousand valuable rarities and treasures were found in Gorki Leninskiye, where in the old days the “tsar’s guard” lodged.

Treasure-hunting divers operate on the coast of the Baltic Sea and in the waters of Lake Ladoga. They are looking for ancient sunken ships (remember the line from the song: “Divers are looking for treasures...”). According to historical documents, merchant ships with a cargo of precious metals worth about 45 million dollars sank in the Baltic waters near present-day Vyborg in the 18th century. At the same time, a caravan of ships with cargo sank in Lake Ladoga, which today is estimated at 30 million “green”.

The Urals also abound with huge caches of treasures. In the 16th-17th centuries, robber Cossack chieftains operated here, including the famous Ermak Timofeevich. The latter, according to completely reliable information, hid several barrels of jewelry looted from merchants in one of the caves on the banks of the Yaiva River. These treasures are valued at approximately $80 million.

Stepan Razin buried his huge treasury piece by piece along the Vetluga River (present-day Nizhny Novgorod region). He hid a treasure trove of countless treasures in an underground log house four miles from the village of Trumleiki. It is only unknown in which direction these same four miles should be measured...

A lot of gold and precious stones are buried in the land of old Cossack settlements on the Ural, Don, and Kuban rivers. In the Krasnodar region, they are still looking for the treasures of the White Cossacks - the famous gold of the Kuban Cossack Rada. The estimated value of the treasure is $100 million.

In Pskov, somewhere near the Kremlin, merchant treasures with an estimated value of $50 million are buried. However, there is information that this treasure was hidden in the neighboring Vitebsk region. In Smolensk they still cannot find the city treasury of the 17th century ($5 million). There are some indications that this gold was also exported a little to the west, perhaps to the territory of present-day Belarus.

GOLDEN SORT

An elderly professional treasure hunter once taught me the basics of his craft. And, by the way, he said that the best time for searching in the “field”, in nature, is the beginning of spring, right up to the “tall grass”. The earth has “moved away” and digging is easy. There is little vegetation. But the most important thing is that if you climb a tall tree, dark rectangles are clearly visible on the thawed soil - these are the sites of long-demolished buildings that stood here in the old days.

This is where, they say, we need to dig.

But it would be good to know in advance what you are looking for.

Experience shows that a treasure hunter requires luck and extraordinary ingenuity. It was thanks to his ingenuity that one of the search engines near Moscow managed to get rich, working only with a sapper shovel.

Thirty-five-year-old Sergei N., while studying the memoirs of Napoleonic Marshal Caulaincourt, came across an interesting fact. At the end of October 1812, the French army, retreating from Moscow, trudged along the road between Borovsk and Vereya. Not far from the village of Sovyaki, Napoleon gave the order: all soldiers and officers should empty their backpacks of looted valuables and pour them into the Protva River. The order was carried out. Naturally, the French stuffed as many gold ducats into their trouser pockets as they could fit. And there, in Sovyaki, Napoleon organized a hospital for those who could not go further.

A savvy reader of memoirs rushed to Sovyaki and began to look for the place where there was a French hospital more than two centuries ago. Or rather, the place where the toilet was located, an ordinary cesspool. And sure enough, I found it! He began to dig for humus, which had turned into peat, and at the bottom of the hole he found what he was looking for: several kilograms of gold chervonets from the late 18th – early 19th centuries. The fact is that the guy realized: when the French settled in the latrine, gold poured out of their overflowing pockets into the toilet hole.

True, there is not enough romance in this story...

Alexander Annin

Anyone can find a gold or silver coin from a distant era, you just need to know where to look! KRUYS MAP Treasure hunting in the summer of 2013 suddenly ceased to be an innocent hobby for a certain group of people. Tightening legislation in the field of archeology can make even a random person who found an ancient coin and picked it up from the ground a criminal. However, in Rostov the treasure hunting community is still strong.One of the treasure hunters is a well-known and respected person in Rostov - Roman Yolkin. He is a lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in reserve. But his love of antiquity has nothing to do with his service in the internal affairs bodies. The hobby arose suddenly when, at the age of 13, Roman, on the ruins of a demolished house in the center of Rostov, found a nickel from 1924. He was immediately interested: why is the coin so big? What does it show? How could she end up in this house? “Since then, I have, as they say, fallen in love with antiquity,” Roman said about his hobby. - I began to study specialized literature on numismatics, archeology, and local history. When I had more free time, I founded the archaeological society “Heritage”, which included people, like me, who were in love with Don history. Now one of the main projects of the archaeological society “Heritage” is to establish the locations of Cossack towns on the banks of the Don according to the map of Cornelius Cruys. This is the commander of the flotilla of Peter I, which in 1696 went from the Voronezh shipyards to Turkish Azov to besiege and take the fortress. And Cornelius Cruys mapped all the Cossack towns he saw from the Don. And this historical document is today stored in the Don State Public Library. - We have already found the location of four towns designated by Kruys. Now we are planning to organize scientific expeditions to find out who inhabited these towns: ethnic composition, occupation, trade relations. Our main task is to try to answer the question: who are the Cossacks, where did they come from? SORTING ON GOLD As a legally savvy person, Roman Petrovich Yolkin avoids calling himself a treasure hunter. He is an archaeologist, historian, local historian, researcher. And the treasure... depends on your luck here! Everyone dreams of finding him. Rostov is a merchant city, where artifacts are literally lying under your feet. After heavy rainfalls on Maxim Gorky Street, where tram tracks were being rebuilt, a visual inspection of the loosened soil can reveal Catherine’s coins! Knowledgeable people came there and looked for... Antique coins can be found in any old house that is being demolished. Under the floorboards, at the entrance to the house where clothes were taken off, there are almost certainly coins from different times. If people wanted to hide something, they used attics, window sill niches, and recesses in the stove masonry. All these places are first checked by antiquity hunters. The largest treasure in recent years was found in the early 2000s, in the very center of Rostov, in one of the houses in Semashko Lane. While deepening the basement, workers found a clay pot filled with gold and silver coins from the times of Peter and Catherine II. It is curious that a treasure from the 18th century was hidden in a house built in the 19th century! The builders placed wooden logs right on the spot where the treasure lay. And a toilet was later built on top of the pot of coins. It turned out that when sitting on the toilet, a person literally found himself on a pot of gold! The real irony of fate was that the residents of this communal apartment had been dreaming for many years about saving at least a little money and improving their living conditions. And at the same time, they went to the toilet like royalty, right for gold, without knowing it themselves! The fate of this treasure is also noteworthy. Having found the pot, the workers did not say anything to the owner of the house, but immediately took the coins to the Central Market, located very nearby, and sold all the coins to resellers at a low price. They immediately began to drink the proceeds. Of course, the secret quickly became apparent. While the drunken diggers muttered something in their own defense, collectors rushed in the footsteps of the treasure to save Don history from market hucksters. Rubles, half rubles and half a half rubles had to be bought back, and at a much higher price. Roman Elkin managed to extract nine coins from that treasure in this way (and there were about three hundred in total!). These are silver uneven roundels with imperial eagles, profiles of Peter I, Elizabeth Petrovna, Catherine II... SICKLES AND STATERS The funds of the Rostov Regional Museum contain treasures found on the territory of Rostov at various times. The most famous one was handed over to the state by a resident of the village of Nizhne-Gnilovskaya V.P. Cherskov. The explanation states that 32 coins in the bottom part of a clay vessel (Bosporan staters of the beginning of our era) were found on May 7, 1958 by Cherskov’s wife “in a cliff in which our neighbor Kazachkov was choosing a stone to build a house.” History is silent about the further relations of the Cherskovs with their neighbor-builder, who did not notice the pot of coins. In 1976, the local history museum acquired a gold stater of Tsar Savromat I from a private person. The coin was found while digging a trench in the village of Karataevo (Sovetsky district). Researcher S.I. Bezuglov reports in the journal “Don Archeology” about at least three more gold coins found at the Sukho-Chaltyrskoye settlement, which ended up in private collections. In 1914, a gold Roman coin of Emperor Claudius was found at the Temernitsky settlement (present-day Leninsky district). A very rare artifact has attracted the attention of scientists for thirty years. The coin disappeared without a trace during the fascist occupation of Rostov in 1942-1943. Records have been preserved of the discovery of a large treasure of gold Bosporan coins at the Kobyakovskoye settlement (present-day Proletarsky district of Rostov) in 1850. were found in a small hole dug by rainwater by the Cossack woman Tyurina, and bought by the merchant Cossack Bogdanov. The treasure was sold out, but five coins were transferred to the Imperial Hermitage through the military chieftain. The treasure may not always consist of coins. According to historian V.F. Chesnoka, in 1963, excavator operator Anatoly Feoktistov was laying a trench near the Rostov airport. At a depth of about a meter, a lot of oblong-shaped metal objects suddenly fell from the side of the trench... Thus, a unique treasure from the Late Bronze Age was found: several heavy chisels and more than forty perfectly preserved sickles. This is the so-called “trade treasure”: in that era, the products of artisans often acted as an exchange equivalent, that is, they served as money. Among the unusual finds made recently, I will mention the “beard badge” of 1705, which Peter I issued to the boyars for the right to wear a beard, with a stamp for the year determining its length. A sign of great value was found in the vicinity of the village of Starocherkasskaya, near Rostov. Now it is in one of the private collections. WHERE TO SEARCH? So, ancient treasures are not fiction at all. Anyone can find hidden valuables, and for knowledgeable and motivated people this is a common thing. But the “law on treasure hunting,” adopted quite recently, can now severely punish for this. “I, like thousands of other passionate people, consider this new law ill-conceived and even harmful, since it takes away the opportunity to do what we love. And builders digging pits in the historical center of the city now immediately fall under criminal charges. I am sure that the deputies will adjust the wording so that the law really protects history, and does not alienate archaeologists, local historians and collectors from it, says Roman Elkin. Is it possible to search for treasures today without breaking the law? As Roman believes, serious restrictions have been introduced, but not a ban on this activity. Thus, visual search for coins on the surface of the earth during construction work is not formally prohibited. The law defines the location of the “cultural layer” in the thickness of the earth or under water, but says nothing about buildings. So you can still look for treasures in old houses... PAPER TREASURE More recently, Roman Yolkin discovered a treasure in the center of Rostov, consisting of a large number of paper notes issued in Russia at the beginning of the last century. Apparently, it was hidden by some wealthy Rostovite, who then perished in the crucible of the Civil War. To be precise, the treasure was found by builders who were dismantling an old house on the corner of Kirovsky Prospekt (formerly Bogatyanovsky) and Telman Street (this is the area of ​​the Rostov Hippodrome). A paper parcel stuffed with money was hidden in the attic under the wooden rafters. The house was built to last: it survived a revolution and two wars, and kept paper valuables in satisfactory condition.
The treasure consists of banknotes of various denominations issued under Tsar Nicholas II, as well as by the Provisional Government in 1917. The most recent “state credit notes” (in denominations of 10 thousand rubles) are dated 1918. It is curious that on the money of 1918 you can see a real... swastika in the center. This ancient symbol in those days was in no way associated with fascism, but seemed to personify the blessings of life promised to Russians.
The so-called “Kerenki” (named after the last chairman of the Provisional Government, A.F. Kerensky) are present in the found treasure in large quantities. They were issued by both the Provisional Government and the State Bank of the RSFSR in 1917-1919 on the same cliches, and were not backed by anything. The disdainful attitude of the population towards these banknotes is clearly evidenced by the fact that the owner of the treasure at one time tied entire stacks of 40-ruble “kerenoks” with white threads for ease of payment. One pack contains from five hundred to a thousand rubles in “Kerenka” coins. Even the threads are perfectly preserved, despite the fact that almost a hundred years have passed! If you look back into the past, 1918 became a bloody year in the history of our city. After the revolutionary events that shook the foundations of the Russian state, the “Socialist Army” of Rudolf Sievers entered Rostov in February. An orgy of bloody reprisals ensued against the bourgeoisie, officers, scientists and everyone who did not like the drunken cattle that filled the city. These Rostov events are described in the famous study by S.P. Melgunov "Red Terror". However, the Reds were soon knocked out by the units of Colonel Drozdovsky, who made a long journey from the Romanian front to the Don. The terror of the population did not stop, but simply “turned white.” Denikin's counterintelligence hung workers from lampposts along Bolshaya Sadovaya Street... Then there was the German occupation and the declaration of the “Don Republic” by Ataman Krasnov. And the Budennovites of the First Cavalry Army, who drove the whites out of Rostov in 1920, staged a real pogrom in the city, which lasted several days. During what government could the owner of the treasure disappear? And why didn't he take the money with him if he was forced to leave? One can only speculate about this... It is quite rare to find “paper” treasures for two reasons. First: paper doesn't hold up well over time. And second: such treasures cannot be detected using a metal detector, the standard equipment of a treasure hunter. In old houses they find not only money, but also other artifacts that have value in the eyes of collectors. For example, these are empty bottles and dishes, cutlery, books and newspapers. Not long ago, during the demolition of a building in the historical center, many pre-war pioneer ties were found. Some Rostov patriots hid them from the invaders, but for some reason they were unable to get their treasure back... And yet, finding a treasure is a matter of luck and chance. A real treasure hunter does not strive to get rich thanks to his find, but to save at least a small piece of history from oblivion. And this is a noble goal! Alexander OLENEV (based on materials published in the newspaper “Evening Rostov”).