FROM NUMISMATIC COLLECTIONS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM IN LESKOVAC : Individual deposits of money from the 1st to the 5th century

Abstract

The collection of Numismatics and the National Museum in Leskovac contains five packs of Roman money. So far, two of them have been published: a pantry of the Republican Denars from an unknown site and a deposit of denars and antonyms from Podrimac. The other three packs contain bronze coins of the 4th century and are ready for printing. In addition to pantries, the Collection also keeps individual deposits. They were found as gifts, by purchase or during archaeological research. Individual monetary items are most often discovered by chance, and for many cases, location and search conditions are missing. In this paper, 45 copies of money from the 1st to the 5th century, which are well preserved, have been separated and processed, but their location is also known. They provided significant information on circulation of money, but also about the beginnings and the course of urbanization of Leskovac region. The beginning of the urbanization of the Leskovac basin, that is, the formation of the first Roman settlements based on the findings of the emperorship of the emperors of Hadrian and Antonin Pius, is defined in the first half of the 2nd century. These samples of money found in the southwestern and south-eastern Leskovac basins reveal traces of the first economic activity related to the exploitation of ores in the Lece mine and in the area of Ruplje. Also, as Antonina Pija, who was found in 2014 in the suprastructure of the road, at the edge of the Roman settlement, testifies to the beginning of its construction, as well as the formation of settlements in the area of today’s village of Mala Kopasnica. The settlement developed in the second half of the 2nd, during the 3rd and in the first half of the 4th century. A large number of individual finds of money from the 3rd and 4th centuries found throughout the Leskovac valley are proof of the great monetary turnover, but also the intensive urbanization of our basin. Money circulation during the second half of the 4th and 5th centuries significantly decreased in the area of the Leskovac basin. The lack of money circulation and existance of storage rooms, confirm that the Roman settlements in our region shared the fate, the difficult times caused by the fall of the barbarians, with other cities and settlements in the area of Serbia.