Grivna
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Grivna (гривна) was a currency as well as a measure of weight used in
Kievan Rus' Kievan Rusʹ, also known as Kyivan Rusʹ ( orv, , Rusĭ, or , , ; Old Norse: ''Garðaríki''), was a state in Eastern and Northern Europe from the late 9th to the mid-13th century.John Channon & Robert Hudson, ''Penguin Historical Atlas of ...
and other East Slavic countries since the 11th century.


Name

The word ''grivna'' is derived from from . In Old East Slavic it had the form ''grivĭna''. In modern East Slavic languages it has such forms: russian: гри́вна ''grivna'', uk, гри́вня ''hryvnia'', be, гры́ўня ''hryŭnia''. The name of the contemporary currency of Ukraine, ''
hryvnia The or ( ; uk, гривня , : ''hrn''; sign: ₴; code: UAH) has been the national currency of Ukraine since 2 September 1996. The hryvnia is divided into 100 . It is named after a measure of weight used in medieval Kievan Rus'. Name Etym ...
'', is derived from the ancient grivna.


History


Early period

As its etymology implies the word originally meant a necklace or a
torque In physics and mechanics, torque is the rotational equivalent of linear force. It is also referred to as the moment of force (also abbreviated to moment). It represents the capability of a force to produce change in the rotational motion of th ...
. The reason why it has taken the meaning of a unit of weight is unclear. The grivnas that have been found at various archaeological sites are not necklaces but
bullion Bullion is non-ferrous metal that has been refined to a high standard of elemental purity. The term is ordinarily applied to bulk metal used in the production of coins and especially to precious metals such as gold and silver. It comes from t ...
s of
precious metals Precious metals are rare, naturally occurring metallic chemical elements of high economic value. Chemically, the precious metals tend to be less reactive than most elements (see noble metal). They are usually ductile and have a high lustre. ...
, usually
silver Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
. The weight and the shape of grivnas were not uniform, but varied by region. The grivnas of
Novgorod Veliky Novgorod ( rus, links=no, Великий Новгород, t=Great Newtown, p=vʲɪˈlʲikʲɪj ˈnovɡərət), also known as just Novgorod (), is the largest city and administrative centre of Novgorod Oblast, Russia. It is one of the ol ...
and
Pskov Pskov ( rus, Псков, a=pskov-ru.ogg, p=pskof; see also names in other languages) is a city in northwestern Russia and the administrative center of Pskov Oblast, located about east of the Estonian border, on the Velikaya River. Population ...
were thin long round-edged or three-edged
ingot An ingot is a piece of relatively pure material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. In steelmaking, it is the first step among semi-finished casting products. Ingots usually require a second procedure of sh ...
s, while Kievan grivnas have rather the shape of a prolonged
rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (plural rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The ...
. The material was either
gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile met ...
or silver, but silver was predominant. Originally the weight of a grivna was close to the Roman or Byzantine pound. The weight of the Kievan grivna was around . The Novgorod grivna had the weight and became the basis for monetary systems of Northeastern Rus' principalities and the emerging
Grand Duchy of Moscow The Grand Duchy of Moscow, Muscovite Russia, Muscovite Rus' or Grand Principality of Moscow (russian: Великое княжество Московское, Velikoye knyazhestvo Moskovskoye; also known in English simply as Muscovy from the Lati ...
. Along the "grivna of silver" there were the account "grivna of kuna". The latter originally signified a certain amount of
marten A marten is a weasel-like mammal in the genus ''Martes'' within the subfamily Guloninae, in the family Mustelidae. They have bushy tails and large paws with partially retractile claws. The fur varies from yellowish to dark brown, depending on t ...
furs Fur is a thick growth of hair that covers the skin of mammals. It consists of a combination of oily guard hair on top and thick underfur beneath. The guard hair keeps moisture from reaching the skin; the underfur acts as an insulating blanket t ...
(''kuna'' is the word for marten in slavic languages). Since the 12th century the "grivna of kuna" became another unit of weight, but smaller, and signified as well a certain amount of silver coins: 2.5-gram ''nogata'' (from ar, نقد ''naqd'' 'money; a coin') and ''rezan'' (
dirham The dirham, dirhem or dirhm ( ar, درهم) is a silver unit of currency historically and currently used by several Arab and Arab influenced states. The term has also been used as a related unit of mass. Unit of mass The dirham was a un ...
). :1 grivna of silver (204 g) = 4 grivnas of kuna (51 g) = 80 nogata coins = 100 kunas (marten furs) = 200 rezans = 400–600 vekshas (squirrel furs)


Later period

Since the 14th century, when coins started to be minted in North-Eastern Rus (firstly in Moscow), the currency system of silver bullions and furs was becoming obsolete. The grivna became to mean not a weight but rather a particular number of silver coins called then ''
denga A denga (russian: link=no, деньга, earlier денга) was a Russian monetary unit with a value latterly equal to ½ kopeck (100 kopecks = 1 Russian ruble). Production of dengas as minted coins began in the middle of the 14th century ...
''. At the same time as early as the 13th century the word ruble (''rubl) started to be used alongside the word grivna to mean a certain amount of either silver or silver coins. Thus one account ruble was equal to 216 denga coins (each weighted about 0.8 gram). The ''grivna of kuna'' became simply grivna and was equal to 14 dengas. Thus one ruble was equal to 15 new grivnas and 6 denga coins. The weight of a denga coin in Moscow and Novgorod was different. In the 15th century the Moscow denga fell as low as 0.4 gram, while the Novgorod denga remained the same. When in Moscow one ruble had been revalued to 200 denga coins, the exchange rate between Moscow and Novgorod denga coins was set to 2 to 1. Thus since the later 15th – the early 16th centuries one account ruble was equal to 100 Novgorod dengas (later known as ''kopeks'') or to 200 Moscow dengas. In this system one grivna was equal to 10 kopeks or 20 dengas. This last meaning survived into the 18th–20th centuries when one grivennik or grivenka meant a 10-kopek coin.


Weight

The grivna as a silver bullion currency did not survive, but its meaning as a unit of weight became predominant. In 15th–17th centuries there were two weight grivnas (or ''grivenkas''): the "lesser grivna" of and the "greater grivna" of . Since the middle of the 17th century the latter became known as the Russian pound (Фунт, ''funt''). 40 Russian pounds or 80 lesser grivnas (grivenkas) are equal to one
pood ''Pood'' ( rus, пуд, r=pud, p=put, plural: or ) is a unit of mass equal to 40 ''funt'' (, Russian pound). Since 1899 it is set to approximately 16.38 kilograms (36.11 pounds). It was used in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. ''Pood'' was first ...
.


See also

*
Obsolete Russian units of measurement A native system of weights and measures was used in Imperial Russia and after the Russian Revolution, but it was abandoned after 21 July 1925, when the Soviet Union adopted the metric system, per the order of the Council of People's Commissars. T ...
* Manilla *
History of Ukrainian hryvnia The history of the Ukrainian hryvnia refers to the more than 1200 years of history since the princes of Kievan Rus' established silver ingots called hryvnias as a mean of money and a measure of weight. The hryvnia has been the national currency o ...


References


Further reading

* * {{Portal bar, Money, Numismatics Units of mass Obsolete units of measurement Medieval currencies Society of Kievan Rus'