THE TOPOGRAPHY OF FINDINGS OF COINS OF THE STATE OF THE TEUTONIC ORDER IN PRUSSIA AND ITS LIVONIAN BRANCH IN UKRAINE (SUMMARISED INFORMATION BY REGIONS).

The process of formation and development of the inter-state relations of the Ukrainian medieval lands with the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia is represented mainly in written sources of the second half of the XIII – beginning of the XVI century, and particularly in documents. However, these relations should have left a mark not only in written sources. The relations, even if they were occasional, leave a sufficient number of numismatic sources in the cultural layers of settlements. In this case they are the Teutonic coins which were lost by their owners in their time. The purpose of the article is to study and introduce into scientific circulation the corpus of numismatic sources which reflect the relations of the Ukrainian medieval lands with the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia. The main numismatic sources are the coin findings with the coins and materials and tools for coin mining. Coin findings allow enhancing the existing concepts of money circulation and trade relations as well as sometimes these findings change the established stereotypes. Let us turn to the problem of coins of the State of the Crusaders – the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, and the monetary circulation in the medieval Ukraine. The coins of the Teutonic Order are found in Ukraine as one of a kind as well as in money and material hoards. This problem has been studied in the scientific literature. The first information about such findings appeared in the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, particularly in the works of K. Strashkevych, in the materials of the Archaeological Congresses. The Ukrainian Soviet historiography ignored the presence of the Teutonic coins in the monetary circulation of Ukrainian medieval lands, as well as the findings of these coins in Ukraine. Recent decades have brought the processes of rethinking of the historical past. The study of the problems of the history of the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, including the relations of this state with the rulers and the population of medieval Ukraine, was also no exception. In modern Ukrainian historiography, some aspects of the problem of finding the coins of the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia on the territory of Ukraine are reflected in the works of H. Ivakin, A. Pozikhovskyi and R. Shust, S. Demydko, O. Pohorilets and S. Stopenchuk, A. Shestopal, R. Savvov, V. Orlyk and others. In addition to the works mentioned above, the information about coin findings of the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in Ukraine can be found in various sources: archival documents, museum collections, confirmations of ethnographers and materials of forum for treasure hunters. The investigation of coin findings of the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia on the territory of modern Ukraine makes it possible to conclude about the relations (mostly economic) of its medieval lands with the Teutonic Order and the presence of the Order coins in circulation in Ukrainian territories in the XIV-XV centuries. The problem we encountered requires further scientific development. First of all, a detailed study of the numismatic collections of the National Museum of History of Ukraine, regional and district local history museums, reports of the Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, published documents of the XIVXV centuries, funds of the Central State Historical Archives of Ukraine in the cities of Kyiv and Lviv, as well as Torun city archives, Gdansk, Kaliningrad (Königsberg) and others. Thus, for further comprehensive study of the relations of the Ukrainian medieval lands with the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia, it is necessary to use various sources including numismatic ones. And the topography of the findings of coins undoubtedly holds a significant place