Dark Prince
Scale is a small silver, copper rarely, a coin, who looked to Russia before the currency reform of Peter I. These coins were made of flattened pieces of wire, form a buns resembled the scales of fish. Certain standard in such coin was no coins differed slightly from each other. Naminala coins, too, had not. Was important only their weight. (A valuable related resource: Charles Schwab). Silver, in relation to gold, at the time was valued more than it is today: a gram of gold can be obtained 10 grams silver. Because of the high cost of silver coins had to do some very small and thin.
These coins could even stick to your hand like a piece of foil. Each prince felt obliged to make their own coin. Because of this, there are so many varieties. The process of collecting them very entertaining. Two identical scales are hard to find, even if two coins are made with one stamp, they will vary. There are so many options on the drawing scales. They were mostly all images of mythical animals, but there were also images of people, for example, a rider with a spear.
Some inscriptions on Scales, showing the relationship between the princes. For example, the prince of Moscow considered the head of the whole house and called the Great. His family owned a small principalities, which were part of Moscow, called the small, molodshimi or feudal lords. Of this hierarchy can read, for example, in the spiritual Ivan Kalita. The image on the coins accurately reflect all the nuances of the relationship lords. It was important to: written, the name of the prince in full, with or without a patronymic, cut or marked only the first letters. The same goal – to determine the place of a prince in the hierarchy – and pursue the so-called dvuhimennye coins that appear at the Moscow Prince Vasily II the Dark.