Prince Mstislav's silver: what money was used to build the Saint George cathedral?

The paper explores money circulation in Medieval Rus early in the 12th century. While there is more than one publication on this subject, their authors did not pay sufficient attention to the period when the flow of the European denarii to Medieval Russia decreased and did not give due consideration to available numismatic material. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the composition of Medieval Russia hoards have shown the role of foreign coins in this period. The data provided in the paper clearly demonstrate that silver struck coins, European denarii, primarily of Germanic origin, still dominated in circulation in Medieval Rus during the first decades of the 12th century. These coins can be referred to several subgroups. Apparently, it is these coins that the princely authorities had at their disposal to implement major construction projects such as the construction of the St. George Cathedral in the St. George's (Yuriev) Monastery in Novgorod.