Museums attract visitors by the originals represented in their expositions. However, it also happens that the fake acquires historical and cultural significance over time and occupies a worthy place in the museum showcase.
In the exposition of the Museum of Local Lore the attentive visitor will find a fake shilling of the Livonian Order - a small copper coin 19 mm in diameter, minted, probably in Polotsk in the middle of the 16th century. On the obverse it depicts the small emblem of Revel, on the reverse - the order cross. With the fact of the production of fake Livonian shillings the researchers connect the existence of the first Belarussian mint in our city. This is supported by the volume of production of counterfeiters. Only according to the testimony of the end of the 15th century more than 800 thousand coins were minted.
Counterfeit coins of the Livonian Order are found both in single copies and in hoards. One of them was found in Polotsk in 1997. Original coins were minted from billon (defective silver), while counterfeiters used copper, brass and silver. As in the mints of Livonia, the forging of fakes was carried out with non-conjugated stamps - the lower stamp was fixed in a special stand, and the upper chaser was held in his hand, guiding it on the planted billet. These coins have the same size as the original, but differ in weight, including among themselves.
The thirst for profit was so strong that even fierce reprisals against one of the counterfeiters (according to another version, traffickers) in Reval did not scare the manufacturers of fakes: the unfortunate was boiled alive in a boiling oil boiler.
