Да пытання аб пачатку абарачэння пражскіх грошаў на тэрыторыі Беларусі

The author explores the hypotheses of his predecessors concerning Prague's groschen circulation on the territory of Belarus. He comes to the conclusion that an uncritical attitude to written sources, as well as the erroneous attribution of coins from the Smolensk hoard of 1889 and pieces from the excavations in Vaŭkavysk, led to the introduction of false ideas in Belarusian numismatics about the early arrival of Prague groschen to the territory of modern Belarus and their inclusion in the local monetary system as early as the beginning of the 14th century.

Known written sources of the 14th century that mention this currency, e.g. so-called «Act of Algierd of 1337», actually belong to a later time. There is no convincing information about the regular arrival of Czech coins to Belarusian lands earlier than the second half of the 14th century. Treasures of Prague groschen from the Brest region testify to the active use of this coin in monetary circulation in the southwest of modern Belarus from the 1360s–1370s. By the end of the 1380s – the beginning of the 1390s Prague groschen spread to the north-west of the Great Duchy of Lithuania and appeared in hoards together with Lithuanian dukely coins. Only at the beginning of the 15th century, the Czech coins circulated on the entire territory of modern Belarus.