Unlike the medieval mint from Ţara Românească, which beneficiated, even since the ‘80s, of the publication of a relative conclusive set of analysis regarding the evolution of the XIVth monetary mint legal standards, the study of the Moldavian monetary mint has been completely neglected during the last years of the past century. This situation has allowed the issuing of several completely proofless theories, according to which, especially during the XVth century, the Moldavian monetary simultaneously emitted three mint types, with the same legend, but in different alloys:

• silver (for numismatists, the word “silver” designates the alloy which comprises over 500‰ Ag)
• billon (or bilon) (for numismatists, the word “billon” designates the alloy which comprise under 499‰ Ag)
• cooper or bonze

It has not been observed if this kind of situation, undoubtedly a “notable exception” for the entire wide-world medieval numismatics (to say nothing more…), would have blocked the whole economic and social mechanism of the Moldavian state, due to the fact that nobody would have had accepted the coins with the same nominal value, but having a reduced content of precious metal: the main loser would have been the state itself, which would have lost not only an essential instrument for internal as well as external policy, but also the biggest part of the precious material stock, which would have been detained by particulars or would have left the country, to the purse coming back through fiscal or customs mechanisms only the “bronze” coins. Even like this, up to the present, these kinds of theories have been advocated by prestigious researchers from this field of research.

Data regarding the structure of the Moldavian mint alloys have begun to be published only during the last decade. Even if these are only partially and not very numerous, the data published by Pârvan and Constantinescu regarded especially the Moldavian monetary mint minted at the end of the XIVth century (the reign of Petru I, Ştefan I and the beginning of Alexandru I’s reign) or the beginning of the XVIth century (Bogdan III’ monetary issuing); the ones published by Oberländer-Târnoveanu have been limited to the period of the second half of the XVth century, the information set highlighting the existence of a dynamic and complex monetary system, influenced by the evolution of the inner factors (especially political, not economical as it has been until now assumed), as well as by the evolution of the great neighborhood monetary systems, the Hungarian and Polish, with which the Moldavian monetary system was in continuous inter-connexity.

The analyses performed in 2006 have had a triple aim, on the one hand to better fundament, statistically speaking, the already obtained results, and on the other hand to cover with information the chronological segments which had not been anteriorly studied (1400-1456 and 1504-1562 years) and to offer data concerning the monetary mint of the neighborhood states or the mint of which have constituted potentially source of raw materials for the Moldavian mint from XIVth-XVIth centuries (Hungary, Halicz, Polish-Lithuanian kingdom, Golden Hoard, Caffa, Bohemia, Ottoman Empire, Ţara Românească).

The short time which passed from the obtaining of the results made impossible the statistic, technologic and numismatic interpretation on the entire new database, but they already highlight several important elements:

• 1. An extremely dynamic evolution, marked by “breach” moments, which actually are radical monetary reforms.
• 2. Although, according to Medieval Europe’s standards, Moldavia has begun to issue coins very late, around 1380, the emissions’ volume has been very important until 1430’s, and the metrological standards which have regularized this process have been rapidly modified, as the internal political background, but also the external monetary environment change
• 3. The first Moldavian coins issued by Petru I have followed a metrological standard relatively high for the epoch (approximately 800-750‰ Ag, or 12 4/5 at 12 lots, in the Central European medieval metrological system, which seems to have been used in Moldavia as well, 1 lot = 62,5‰). During several years, the standards have been drastically reduced, to 450‰ Ag (7 1/5 lots), and then to 225‰ Ag (approximately 4 lots). The decrease has been determined especially by the consequences of the Polish-Lithuanian monetary politic, Moldavia being part, after 1387, of the economic and politic area of the northern and eastern neighbors, but also by the creasing of the internal payments (due to dynastic conflicts). In the first case, we are confronted with the consequences of the Gresham law, and in the second case, with an inflationist politics, doubled by the insufficiency of resources.
• 4. The dynastic crises around 1400 is clearly marked by the absolute decline of Alexandru I’s (1399-1400) first monetary titles, which are minted from alloys with only 100‰-50‰ Ag.
• 5. The drastically monetary reform (actually the succession of reforms) undertaken by this Principe around 1406-1414 has re-established the coin with high title, but has diversified as well the Moldavian monetary system, which until then was virtually based on only one nominal, because the ½ grosi pieces are extremely rare. Even though, the approximately 800‰ Ag standard initially imposed proven to be too high, considering the fact that in Poland and Hungary, the main economic partners of Moldavia, the legal title of the monetary emissions was sensibly reduced. In order to prevent the consequences of the Gresham law, but to sustain as well the creasing of the internal monetary mass, determined by the economic and demographic expansion, the title of the emissions has been gradually reduced towards 450-350‰ Ag.
• 6. During 1430-1450, on the basis of the internal political crises, the title of the emissions has been drastically reduced towards 125‰ Ag, which may indicate as well a close Moldavian legal standards’ adjustment to the ones used during those years in Hungary and Poland. Unlike the years 1390 or 1420, when the reduction of the medium content of silver from the monetary alloy has been undertaken parallel with the creasing of the monetary volume (a similar practice of “stimulating the economic growth through controlled inflation” can be met in numerous states from Western Europe during Early Renaissance), this time the Moldavian monetary have drastically reduced their emissions’ volume as well.
• 7. The analysis performed in 2006 have highlighted the succession of the Moldavian monetary reforms during 1456-1465, which aimed to the re-establishment of the “permanent” coin with high title, but also the adaptation to the new politico-economic environment from South-Eastern Europe, which resulted from the annexation of the Balkans and of the Black Sea basin by the Ottoman Empire. If the reforms of Petru III have aimed the anchoring of the Moldavian coin to that of Caffa, during the reign of Stefan the Great, the legal standard of the Moldavian coin has been oriented towards the Ottoman one, despite the long political-military confrontations with this state.
• 8. Other monetary reforms have been undertaken during the XVIth century, among which the analysis performed in 2006 have permitted the shaping of the metrological results of the ones from Bogdan III’s time. For the first time, data regarding the monetary standards imposed by Alexandru Lapusneanu’s reform, from 1556, and continued by Stefan Tomsa (1561-1564), have been obtained. Unfortunately, in these latter cases, the small number of coins available for analyses will offer only disparate data, which cannot be statistically analyzed.
• 9. An important contribution brought by the data obtained through the analyses undertaken in 2006 regards the understanding of the technology used in the Moldavian monetary workshops during XIVth-XVIth centuries. The refining technologies of silver alloys were compatible to those used in more advanced countries from Central Europe, but probably the political willing to constantly respect the legal standards was missing. Moreover, the external aspect of the coins was “improved” through additional silvering. In certain cases, the analyses have highlighted the use of amalgam technique (Bogdan III), but it seems that the most used was based on the placing of the newly minted coins in concentrated salted silver solutions.
• 10. The analyses have highlighted the coins’ recycling, as well the silver objects’ recycling in order to obtain the necessary raw material for the Moldavian coins’ minting. It regards the re-melting of foreigner coins, as well as local coins. The presence or the absence of gold in proportions visible with investigation techniques used by our team, allowed the highlighting of two major silver sources used by the Moldavian monetary, but also the re-melting rhythm of the older issues, which lead to diminution, until the equipments’ sensibility limit of the gold quantity from the coins.
• 11. As a conclusion, we may assert that the result of the analysis undertaken on the Moldavian monetary in 2006 have allowed the obtaining of several essential data regarding the monetary metrology and technology from this country, data which is more than that accumulated in approximately 130 years of scientific researches in the field. The obtained data must be quantitatively and qualitatively improved, in order to gain statistically relevance.

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