This illustration is inspired by the first coins of Kyivan Rus, minted by Volodymyr the Great, the Prince of Kyiv who ruled in the late 10th and early 11th centuries.
On his gold and silver coins, Volodymyr stamped his personal princely sign: the tryzub (trident). For centuries, this symbol was largely forgotten. It was revived in 1918 when the modern Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR) was searching for a national coat of arms.
The UNR officially adopted Volodymyr's ancient sign as its state symbol, creating a powerful, unbroken link between the 20th-century independent Ukraine and its ancestral heritage in the great Kyivan Rus.
Many of these original, foundational coins — physical proof of Ukraine's thousand-year state tradition — are currently held in the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, a legacy of Russia's appropriation of Ukrainian cultural heritage.
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Pictured here:
- News Operations Editor Chris York wearing Ancient Coins tote bag
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The tryzub, or trident in English, is Ukraine's national coat of arms and traces its origins directly to the first coins minted by Volodymyr the Great in the late 10th century. On these gold and silver pieces, the Prince of Kyiv stamped his personal dynastic sign — a stylized trident — as a symbol of his power and ownership.
Although the symbol fell out of use for centuries, in the 18th century it was rediscovered by historians studying these ancient coins and subsequently revived in 1918 by the Ukrainian People's Republic — the first modern independent Ukrainian state established after the collapse of the Russian Empire. By adopting Volodymyr's trident as the official state emblem, modern Ukraine established a historical link to the medieval legacy of Kyivan Rus'.
