#Exhibit of the Month

The great ruler Stephen the Great, outstanding army commander and diplomat, was also concerned during his life with the economic prosperity of the country, supporting the development of crafts, trade and fairs. During his reign, groși and half groși minted in the dinar system were issued, a monetary system introduced in Moldova during the last reign of Petru Aron (1455-1457).

The coins were minted from silver of superior title, those that reflect stability in the economic life of the country at that time. Their masterful execution at the Suceava mint is among the beautiful artistic achievements during the reign of Stephen the Great.

During his reign, two types of issues were minted, for the two denominations: groși and half groși.

Type I issues have a split shield on the obverse; in the first quarter appears a rose surmounted by a cross and three fascias, in the second quarter. For the epigraph issues (groși), the image is accompanied by the circular legend with the name of the issuer: + STEFANVS VOIEVODA. On the other side appears the bour's head with a star between the horns accompanied by the heraldic furniture - the rose and the contoured crescent, placed to the right and left of the bour's head; circular legend: MOLDAVIE COIN.

On type II coins in the shield on the obverse appears a patriarchal cross (double) and the legend STEFANVSVOIEVOD or abbreviated STEFANVSVOIE. On the reverse, as in type I, the bour's head with heraldic attributes is preserved: rose right/crescent left and crescent right/rose left. A star or rose appears between the ox's horns. The legend accompanying the face with the bour head is MONETAMOLDAVI or abbreviated MONETAMOLDA.

The dating of Stephen the Great's coins is still under discussion. According to one opinion, type I issues were minted between 1457-1476, and type II between 1480/1481-1505 (Octavian Iliescu), and another 1465/1467-1475/1476 for type I and 1476/1479-1497 for type II (Ernest Oberländer-Târnoveanu).

The coins in this showcase were discovered during the archaeological excavations at Orheiul Vechi (Trebujeni, Orhei district) in the 6th and 7th decades of the 20th century:

1. Type I money issues, groși, silver
2. Type II money issues, groși, silver
3. Type II coin issue, half groși, silver

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

“Enigma. Victory of decrypting”

June 14 - 30, 2021

Thanks to the efforts of brilliant Polish mathematicians, the complex cipher of the Enigma, the German cipher machine, was broken. This influenced the course of World War II. More than seventy years after its completion, the Polish Institute and the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Council invite you from 14 to 30 June 2021 to the National Museum of History of Moldova to visit the exhibition entitled "Enigma. The victory of decrypting".

The German Enigma cipher machine was made by Arthur Scherbius. He achieved commercial success in the civilian market, as well as in state and administrative institutions long before the outbreak of World War II (1939-1945). As early as 1932, Polish cryptologists managed to decipher the extremely complex Enigma codes for the first time. This took place at the Saxon Palace in Warsaw, which housed the headquarters of the Cipher Bureau of the 2nd Division of the Polish Army General Staff.

The parents of the success were the Polish mathematicians-cryptologists: Marian Rejewski, Jerzy Różycki and Henryk Zygalski. Their achievements have allowed the decoding of the Enigma ciphers, which were constantly being improved.

Five weeks before the outbreak of World War II, on July 25, 1939, the heads of the Polish Cipher Bureau and the mathematicians-cryptologists revealed the Polish achievements to the French and British secret services. After the outbreak of the war, decryption continued in Great Britain and France, with the participation of Polish scientists. This part of the story is known, however, from movies and books.

The exhibition, prepared by the Wielkopolska Voivodeship Council and, in the Romanian version, by the Polish Institute in Bucharest, acquaints us with the history of lesser-known Polish heroes-cryptologists, their teachers and collaborators, whose knowledge and mathematical genius allowed them to reveal one of the best kept secrets of the Third Reich.

Observing the development of the contemporary knowledge-based economy, we often forget that, in many areas, its roots spring from the trenches of the great wars of the 20th century.

The exhibition can be seen on the fence of the National Museum of History of Moldova (31 August 1989 Street, no. 121A) from 14 to 30 June 2021.

The fascinating history of this achievement can be read in the article about the Enigma in the monthly magazine "Historia" (text in Romanian).