О последнем монетном дворе Великого княжества Литовского (1664-1666 гг.), найденном на территории нижнего замка города Вильнюса
ENIn summer 2004, during archaeological investigation of the Prince castle in Vilnius, which was carried out by the Center of investigation of castles of Lithuania „Lithuanian Castles“ („Lietuvos pilys“), the last mint working on the territory of the Great Principality of Lithuania was discovered. The rests of the mint building were found in the place of the former second workshop. According the plan from 18th century the building was long 100 m, but it purpose was not known. The Archeologists investigated about 25 m of the southern part of the building. In the 8 m wide building, in the depth of 1.5 m rests of tiles (from a fallen roof) were found and under them a loam layer, perhaps a tloor surface- In this layer, as well as in the upper layers, more than 2000 copper coins, especially shillings from 1664-1666 stroke by the mint of Vilnius and their half-products were found. A large number of small fragments - scraps from the half-products - were also found there. Among the findings a blank of a silver coin - 6-grossus - also was found. All these findings were dispersed on the whole area of rests of the discovered building. Dies or other instruments have not been found. Until the discovery of the mint, it was known from the written documents that the Vilnius mint was situated in the area of the Lower Castle at the time of ruling of Jan Kazimierz in 1664-1666.Since 1991 about 20 blank for minting the copper shillings were found in different places of the Lower Castle and in different time. In 2002, 77 blanks (73 blank for copper shillings and four for silver coins - 6-groat pieces) and 9 scraps from half-products were found, but it has not been found their relation to a concrete building. The mint discovered operated from 4 June 1664 to 30. December 1666. It produced over 404 millions of copper shillings. The silver coins were also minted were (3-groats, 6-groats, orts, guldens). It is not excluded that golden coins (ducats and halfducats) were also minted here. The exact amount of coins stroke is unknown, but the silver and golden coins could be produced in the total value of about 15 thousand guldens. In the closest future no further excavations are expected here, because the investigations carried out were done in connection with planned transformer station for the Prince Castle. What was the exact size of the mint, its disposition and what instruments were used in it is unknown. What numismatic discoveries could be expected will be known after investigation of the whole building.
