Foreign Coins Discovered in Tbilisi
Above – obverse, below – reverse
Various foreign coins and coin hoards discovered at different times and locations across the city. The Bactrian and Asia Minor coins (from the cities of Amastris and Soli) found here date back to the 2nd–1st centuries BCE. Among coins from the Classical antiquity period, notable finds include Roman denarii and Parthian drachmae from the 1st century BCE to the 1st century CE, Asian Bosporan coins from the 1st–3rd centuries CE, and a Sassanid drachma of Shapur I (241–272).
In 1904, a mixed hoard of Sassanid-Byzantine silver coins (approximately 800 pieces) was discovered at "Maidani," with a chronological range of 579–641 CE. Numerous Byzantine copper coins, and more rarely gold ones, from various periods (6th, 10th–11th centuries) have been found in Tbilisi; additionally, 8th-century Arab dirhams and fulus have been identified. In 1961, a hoard of Arab silver coin fragments from the late 10th and early 11th centuries was discovered within the territory of the Botanical Garden.
Coins belonging to the Shirvanshahs, Eldiguzids, and Seljuks from the 11th–13th centuries are frequently found. Several mixed hoards of Georgian-Oriental coins have been documented. Silver and copper coins minted in the 14th century in the names of the Jalayirids and Hulaguids—including a specific hoard—have also been unearthed in Tbilisi. Iranian and Turkish coins appear in large quantities; of particular note is a large hoard of 18th-century Iranian silver coins discovered in Abanotubani in 1929–30. European coins have also been recovered in Tbilisi. All these findings indicate that Tbilisi maintained intensive trade relations with numerous countries of both the East and the West.
Literature: აბრამიშვილი თ., საქართველოს სახელმწიფო მუზეუმის პართული მონეტების კატალოგი, თბ., 1974; მისივე, საქართველოს სახელმწიფო მუზეუმის ბიზანტიური მონეტები, თბ., 1965; ანთაძე მ., საქართველოსა და თურქეთის ურთიერთობა XV–XVIII საუკუნეებში ნუმიზმატიკური მასალის მიხედვით, თბ., 1982; ქებულაძე რ., ევროპული მონეტების მიმოქცევა საქართველოში XV–XVIII საუკუნეებში, თბ., 1971; Брашинский И. Б., К истории экономических связей Восточного Причерноморья в античную эпоху (по нумизматическим данным), «Известия АН Грузии», 1967, т. 47, №3; Джалагания И. Л., Иноземная монета в денежном обращении Грузии V–XIII вв., Тб., 1979; Кутелия Т. С., Грузия и cефевидский Иран, Тб., 1979.
G. Dundua
