A Draft Paper.The Catalog of Muntenia Ducats in Own Collection

The 1452 monetary reform ended the period of significant currency transformations in medieval Wallachia. In 1451-1452, the Danubian Principality balancing between the Ottomans and the Hungarians, managed to launch the law and monetary reforms as well as a foreign policy change. The improvements were aimed at strengthening the Wallachian statehood. In 1452, Wallachian ruler-voivod Vladislav II resumed the activities at the local mint starting to hammer silver coins. The new denomination was so-called Muntenia ducat. Prior the monetary reform, the voivod had introduced Byzantine laws to Wallachia and got the Ottoman-Hungarian guarantees of his power as a Wallachian ruler. Consequently, Wallachia became the principality with a dualistic monetary system where silver Muntenia ducats and Ottoman silver aspri circulated together.The project contains a catalogue and analysis of metal of twenty-three Muntenia ducats hammered in 1452-1456. The specimens are in the author’s private collection of coins and medals. They are divided into four types: I, IIA, IIB and IIC.Heraldic shields on the ducat obverses are either Spanish or French. The inscriptions on the coins are composed of two Greek letters (IѠ) and Bulgarian words such as +IѠВЛАДНСЛАВОНВОДАГNЪ (+By the grace of God Vladislav voivoda lord). This expression was also the first sentence in Wallachian-Bulgarian documents issued by the Wallachian voivods in the XV century. A handheld XRF analyser Thermo Scientific Niton XL3t Goldd+ was taken to measure the composition of the coins’ metal at the University in Bergen. The Muntenia ducats 1452-1456 are basically composed of silver and copper: silver 83% - 97%, copper 1.5% - 15.3%. All coins have moderate traces of lead (0.11% - 0.69%) and gold (0.25% - 0.60%). Some ducats have got traces of iridium (0.44% - 0.93%) and zinc (0.03% - 0.05%), two of them traces of iron (0.11% - 0.19%). The monetary unit of measurement taken at the Wallachian mint in 1452 was presumably the Byzantine litra (λίτρα) borrowed through Bulgaria. The Byzantine-Bulgarian trail is quite obvious as Vladislav II began the Wallachian reforms by introducing the Byzantium laws, which came to Wallachia from Bulgaria. In 1451, the voivod ordered to copy the alphabetical directory of Byzantine laws Σύνταγμα κατὰ στοιχεῖον – Syntagma Canonum or Zaconicul. Previously, Sintagma was translated from Greek to Slavic in Serbia. A Slavic translation came from Serbia to Bulgaria and from there to Wallachia. The theoretical weight of the Byzantine silver litra was 327.60 g. According to the XRF analysis the Muntenia ducats contain 91% silver on average. Their average coin weight was presumably 0.60 g. Therefore one litra = 600 ducats (50 dozen).0,60 g. х 91% = 0,546 g. (1) 327,60 g. / 0,546 g. = 600 ducats (2) 600 = 50 х 12 (3) Picture "The Grand Armoury" - swords, axes, sheilds, spears, arrows, and armor ll. Arguably Romania's most beautiful castle, Castelul Peleş (Peleş Castle) was built in 1875 in Sinaia, Romania. Copyright: Curious Expeditions flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/curiousexpeditions/2197544824