GROSHEN: COIN OF MOLDAVIA
1 groshen, 1457-1504: Principality of Moldavia
Ruler: Stephen III also Stephen the Great (Romanian "Ștefan cel Mare") — Voivode (or Prince) of Moldavia from 1457 to 1504.
Coat of arms of Moldavia inside a circle of dots or pearls: aurochs's head with a star between its horns; it is flanked to the right by a sun (sometimes described as a rose) and to the left by a new moon (crescent).
The legends on the coin are written in Latin using the Uncial script popular in the Middle Ages (a handwritten font characterized by rounded shapes, as it was usually written with a reed or bird's pen).
MONETA MOLDAVI: coin of Moldavia.
A double cross (one of the elements of the personal coat of arms of Stephen the Great; popular in medieval Hungarian heraldry) inside the so-called "Square Iberian" heraldic shield.
STEFANUS VOIEVO: Stephen voivode (in the Middle Ages — a military leader, head of a military unit, commander of a squad or militia; official title of the rulers of the Principality of Moldavia).
- Silver: 13 mm - 0.58 g
- Reference price: 60$
COIN GROSHEN — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- PRINCIPALITY OF MOLDAVIA (14th-16th centuries): groshen
GROSHEN as coin name.
Groshen — a small, most often low-grade silver coin of the medieval Principality of Moldavia (modern Moldova).
In catalogs, the term "groshen" sometimes refers not only to Moldavian coins, but also to some other coins of medieval Europe: for example, coins of Bohemia /Prague groschen/. However, I consider this to be inaccurate.
In fact, around consonant coin names, of which there are more than enough, an unpleasant situation has developed for me, as a collector of coins by name. There is too much confusion in the formulations: the same coins often have different, although similar, names in different numismatic catalogs.
If you delve into history, it becomes clear where all these names came from. — It all started with grosso (or rather, in Italian "denaro grosso" or "thick denaro") of Venice at the end of the 12th century.
Very soon, a denomination derived from grosso appeared — grossetto. Later, similar coins began to be issued almost throughout Europe and not only: in France (gros tournois), in Germany (Meissen groschen or later simply groschen), England (groat), Netherlands (groot), Poland (Kraków grosz or later simply grosz), Hungary (garas), Turkey (kuruş), Ethiopia (gersh), Egypt (qirsh)...
That is, groshen is a local, Eastern European (in this case, Moldavian) variant of the name of a small silver coin of the above-mentioned type. Adaptation to the local language. Although this coin of the Principality of Moldavia is not always called groshen by numismatists — it is often called groschen or gros.
By the way, if a similar coin had been issued in the Middle Ages on the lands of neighboring Ukraine, then by analogy it would have had the name "grish".
