2016-11-16 Wed

Three new coins were issued on 9th November by Ukraine under the series named “Cultural Monuments in Ukraine”, celebrating wildlife, fauna, personalities, literature, and legends of the country. The first three coins feature wildlife, reading and book collecting, archaeology, and historical landmarks.

The first coin features the peacock along with the 100-year-old manuscript named Izbornik Svyatoslav 1076. An unknown monk created the work containing general moral instructions, aphorisms, and interpretations of the Holy Scripture which is also named as the Shcherbatov Izbornik, after the 18th-century Russian historian M. Shcherbatov. The Hermitage Izbornik which is now called the Saint Petersburg Public Library is where the manuscript lies after Shcherbatov’s death. The illustrations contain intricate images of peacocks. The obverse depicts a peacock along with a miniature fragment of the 12-century Gospel of Tartu and the inscription “peacock”.

The reverse features a small State Emblem of Ukraine with the inscription Ukraine, the year of issue, 2016, denomination 5 ??????? and a depiction of Izbornik Svyatoslav 1076, overlaid by an image of a gilded peacock as well as a fragment of the obverse miniature. The peacock in the foreground is gold-plated in some portions.