COINS DISCOVERED AT UVEK SETTLEMENT ON THE BASIS OF ARCHIVAL MATERIALS

Abstract

The article features a description and characteristics of numismatic materials from Uvek settlement dating back to the Golden Horde period on the basis of the surviving archival materials. Uvek settlement represents the largest community in the northern part of the Lower Volga region. It is identified with the large Golden Horde town of Ukek, where coins were minted in the last third of 13th – early 14th centuries, and located on the southern outskirts of Saratov. The described complexes and individual coins have been registered and collected by Saratov Academic Archive Commission and Istarkhet Local History Society. They were eventually discarded and became unavailable for scientific research. However, the record book of the Museum of Saratov Academic Archival Commission,Commission's archives (their major portion is presently deposited in the State Archives of the Saratov region)
and certain publications have preserved scarce, and in certain cases minimum information on the discovered coins.The authors attempted to summarize and systematize the information, providing a description of the numismatic materials (based on archival data) combined with references to the place and time of their discovery, the persons who provided individual coins, and documents in which they are mentioned. The available definitions of the coins are rather trustworthy, as the specialists of the Commission and Istarchet were such renowned scientists as A.A. Krotkov and B.V. Zaikovsky, who possessed a sufficient numismatic qualification. The coins mentioned in the annexed archival materials were apparently discovered at Uvek settlement in 1888–1921. The Juchid coins definitely  originating from Uvek settlement and mentioned in archival materials correspond to the minting of 1310– 1395.