Sale: Triton VII, Lot: 1198. Estimate $10000.  Closing Date: Monday, 12 January 2004.  Sold For $9500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

RUSSIA, Principality of Kiev. Vladimir I. 980-1015. Billon Srebrennik (2.15 gm). Type I, struck circa 988-1010. IC XC, Nimbate facing bust of Christ, hand raised in benediction and holding Gospels; rosettes in nimbus arms / "Vladimir on the throne", the prince enthroned, holding sceptre; royal symbol in right field. Sotnikova & Spassky 26; Chernetsov pl. I, 2; cf. Spassky fig. 31.2. Good VF for type, slightly wavy flan with ragged edge. An extremely rare and historically important specimen of the first Russian coin. ($10,000)

Vladimir was the son of Svjatoslav, Prince of Kiev (945-972 AD). The Byzantines at first found Svjatoslav to be a useful tool in securing the northern borders of the empire. The Kievan prince destroyed the Khazars in the early 960s AD, and in 967 AD, Nicephorus II invited the Rus to invade Bulgaria. The Bulgarian czar Boris II capitulated, recognizing Svjatoslav as overlord, and Rus forces moved into Bulgaria. Suddenly, the Byzantines realized they had a new and greater threat emerging on their borders. The Byzantine emperor John I invaded Bulgaria and forced the Rus to retreat. Svjatoslav was ambushed and murdered by Pechenegs (his skull made into a drinking cup), and his son Vladimir succerded him, although it was not until 980 AD that Vladimir was able to suppress all resistance to his rule. Vladimir sought to diffuse the tension with Byzantium, and in 988 AD, made an agreement with Basil II, marrying Basil's sister Anna and converting to Christianity (after invading the Crimea to prod the somewhat reluctant Basil to seal the deal). The nascent Christian Russian state remained a loyal ally of Byzantium, although the emperors always looked to their giant northern neighbor with unease.

The pagan Rus princes did not strike coinage in their own names, relying instead on imported Byzantine and Arabic money, and occasionally striking crude anonymous copies, such as the billon miliarense struck at Tmutarakan. Vladimir for the first time struck signed coinage, his type I srebrenniks, trumpeting his conversion to Christianity and alliance with Constantinople. His base silver srebrenniks and extremely rare gold zlatniks were intended to replace the foreign coinage in circulation, but while great quantities of silver appears to have been struck (Sotnikova in the latest survey of the coinage records 335 specimens with 100 die combinations) their low fineness made them unpopular, and they failed to circulate or survive in hoards. Until recently, almost all surviving specimens came from two 19th century hoards and scattered single finds, the vast majority being held in Russian museums.