Medieval Coinage Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

A B S T R A C T
This paper aims at the fullest possible presentation of the numismatic history of Venetian occupied Crete in the opening three decades of the 17th century. To date, this period has preoccupied researchers mainly with regard to socio-political aspects and cultural activity.
The above goal was attained by recourse both to written testimony and to numismatic remains from the period. The detailed cataloguing of Venetian state archives (reports by the general provveditori of Crete, provveditori in the Venetian Zecca, senate decisions) offers a wealth of unknown or unused evidence on existing numismatic conditions on the island, endemic and chronic problems, as well as desperate attempts by the central administration to control monetary circulation and overcome obstacles of various kinds.
Record is made of established or unusual administrative measures aimed at dealing with lack of coinage; tackling forgery in Cretan markets; rectifying anomalies in currency exchange rates; limiting dependency on foreign numismatic issues from political and commercial rivals (mainly Spain and the Ottoman Empire) etc.
Strictly numismatic concerns seriously affected financial life in the Regno di Candia: they hampered large-scale commercial transactions and day-to-day dealings, limited trade liquidity and had a knock-on effect on tax income, forcing local public treasuries and citizens to jump through all manner of fiscal and numismatic hoops.
In turn, this led to the proliferation of problems in society: problems paying employees and soldiers created social tensions, upsetting social harmony and contributing to the degradation of the lower classes.
Day to day financial reality is also reflected by individual finds, and still better by hoards located in Cretan museums, which are virtually unrecorded in the international bibliography. These vividly portray the means used in small transactions and savings on Crete, when taken together with the mass issues from the Venetian mint destined for exclusive use on the island, which were often ideologically loaded by the choice of Greek-language inscriptions.
So as to examine market practice in medium or large scale transactions over the widest possible financial and geographical range, statistical analysis was carried out on all the legal dealings recorded in the surviving ledgers of two notaries: M. Varouchas (Amari, 1579-1613, published) and J. Da Scitia (Chandax, 1613-1625, unpublished).
These quantitative data permit us to make observations that both support and add substantially to other testimony. Matters addressed include: the liquid assets of townsfolk and country dwellers; the extent and intensity of barter; currency used in transactions on the island, in contrast to those carried out in the mother city; the frequency of bills of exchange; the abundance of bronze and rarity of gold and silver; measures taken to protect transactions against rampant forgery; language used on coinage and related issues etc.

In 2010–2011, archaeological excavations in the Vítkovo Sq. in Prčice (the Sedlec-Prčice agglomeration)
were organized. A large sunk construction (V51) interpreted as a lower part of a residential building seems
to be the most important discovery there. Among other objects, two coins come from the filling of the
construction – a denier struck under the Duke Frederick (Cach 1972, no. 628) and an anonymous precisely
undated denier struck in an unknown Hungarian mint (Huszár 1979, no. 145). The enormous importance
of the finding context in Prčice is necessary to be confronted with the written sources – Prčice is connected
with the beginning of the Vitkonides dynasty. The coins can give precision to dating of the finding context –
to the period directly connected with the beginning of the dynasty.

- by Marek Budaj
- •
- Archaeology, Archeologia, Coins finds as archaeological artefacts, Medieval Coins

Three small Medieval coin hoards, found in the Dutch towns Giekerk, Schagen and Zutphen.

A quarter gros of Burgundian duke Philip the Fair, circa 1482.

El presente texto trata de ofrecer un esbozo de respuesta a la cuestión de si las prácticas impositivas desarrolladas por las monarquías feudales en el siglo XIII eran, como parecen sostener varios autores, el medio que permitía introducir la moneda en los usos sociales. Se examinan tres aspectos: la aparición del impuesto en moneda como consecuencia de la propia naturaleza del artefacto monetario; el impacto de las recaudaciones en el stock de moneda legal; y los criterios de la oferta monetaria impuesta por la monarquía. Las evidencias manejadas permiten concluir que, pese al carácter determinante que mantiene el lucro en la producción de moneda, y a diferencia de lo que sucedía en los órdenes políticos tributarios, las características y el volumen de las emisiones debían resultar socialmente aceptables, en particular para los grupos más interesados en su manejo. No podían obedecer, pues, de un modo prioritario, a objetivos fiscales.

Dear Reader, Your attention is invited to the first edition of the catalogue of early Lithuanian half-groats (1495–1529). The current time is extremely generous in the new discoveries thereof that enrich our collections.
The Lithuanian half-groats of Alexander became the first nation-wide currency in Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the end of the 15th century. Prior to that the individual regions of the country had different coins in circulation. The central regions of the state in the third quarter of 14th century began minting the Lithuanian small groats that initially emerged as a half fraction of the base currency of the Eastern Europe of the late Middle Ages — the Prague groat. With time, as a result of the depreciation, this kind of coins degraded into a lower denomination — a penny, which was in circulation mainly in the north-west of the country. The southern and eastern regions saw the emergence of their own coinage that oriented itself towards the monetary systems of the neighbours — Poland and the Golden Horde. Even at the end of the 15th century, in addition to Prague groats, countermarked Eastern (Crimean and Jujid) coins were also in circulation in the southern territories. A common tender was also the silver rouble bullions.
Seeking to supply the state with money for the war with the Duchy of Moscow, in 1495 Alexander Jagiellon pushed through a currency reform. The monetary system was simple: it was projected to mint two currency units — the penny and the half-groat. The countable unit was the groat, which consisted of 10 pence. This decimal system was the only one in Europe at that time. Lithuanian half-groats penetrated the Polish market since their value was 20 per cent higher than that of the Polish ones.
Lithuanian half-groats of Alexander Jagiellon – the oldest Lithuanian coins with the inscription including the name of the state – with the legends MONETA ALEXANDRI (coin of Alexander in Latin) on obverse and MAGNI DVCIS LITVANIE (the Grand Duke of Lithuania in Latin) on reverse were minted from 1495 to 1506. Lithuanian half-groats of Sigismund I the Old – the first dated Lithuanian coins – with the legends MONETA SIGISMVNDI ( coin of Sigismund in Latin) and date on obverse and MAGNI DVCIS LITVANIE ( the Grand Duke of Lithuania in Latin) on reverse were minted from 1508 to 1529 in Vilna mint. The total quantity of coins issued was estimated as approximately 15-20 million half-groats in times of Alexander and approximately 25-30 million half-groats in times of Sigismund (Remecas 2002, pages 58-77). Lithuanian half-groat has a diameter of 20-22 millimeters (18-20.5 millimeters from 1509), weighed 0.90-1.46 g (but the eхample of even 2.36 g weight is also known), silver fineness 6/16.
The fundamentals of classification of the half-groats of Alexander and Sigismund the Old by type were laid in the works of D. Huletski (2006) and A. Hramyka (2008). These classifications are, with minor adjustments, the foundation of this catalogue.

- by Dzmitry Huletski and +1
- •
- European History, Lithuanian History, Medieval Coinage, Grand Duchy of Lithuania

Hoard of 2.119 silver coins, found during excavation works at the town of 's-Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch). Buried in or shortly after 1304. This hoard shows not only what circulated, but also some rare coins of amidst others Kuinre,... more

DIE LETZTEN JAHRE DER MITTELALTERLICHEN MÜNZPRÄGUNG
IN OFEN (BUDA).
Die Münzprägung brach nach der Schlacht bei Mohács in Ofen für einige Jahre ab. Die Ungarische Kammer schloss aber im Jahre 1529 mit Hans Haller einen Vertrag, in dem er bemächtigt wurde, im Namen von Ferdinand I. (1526–1564) in Ofen Münzen zu prägen. Die Prägeanstalt wurde nur einige Monate betrieben, sie gab Denare mit dem Münzzeichen B-H (Buda-Haller) aus. Haller fl oh vor den Truppen von König János Szapolyai (1526–1540) zusammen mit seiner Prägeanstalt nach Preβburg, wo er seine Tätigkeit fortsetzte. Er hat zuerst Denare mit Münzzeichen B-H, später mit P-H (Preβburg-Haller) geprägt. Szapolyai aber gründete in Ofen eine neue Anstalt, die zuerst Silberdenare mit Münzzeichen A-B prägte, später jene ohne Zeichen, die aber mit dem Wappen der Familie Gritti geschmückt waren. In diesen Jahren war Schatzmeister Lodovico Gritti auch für die Münzprägung verantwortlich. Seine hiesigen Münzen sind die letzten mittelalterlichen ungarischen Gelder, die in Ofen geprägt wurden.

This paper gives an account of the Medieval legal theories on coinage and money in the Glossators' era, and especially of the role played by a brocard of the jurist Azo (12th-13th century) in the elaboration of this theories. The matter is not unknown to the scholarship, but the scope of the legal contribution to a monetary thought has been underestimated so far. This article seeks to re-evaluate the Glossators' contribution on coinage starting from the textual reconstruction and the edition of Azo's brocard, then stressing its importance to the developing of a legal monetary thought.

- by David De Concilio
- •
- Legal History, Roman Law, European Legal History, Medieval Canon & Roman Law

Plina is a hilly area that spreads from the right bank of Neretva River in hinterland of town Ploče, to the karst field Jezero. Until recently that was almost completely archaeologically unexplored area. However, during 2007 and 2008, within rescue archaeological excavation that preceded construction of Adriatic highway, numerous burial mounds were excavated in the East Plina territory. Time horizons of graves confirmed that burial mounds were not just prehistoric monuments but were used in later periods, which is also attested by numismatic finds. In this paper twelve coins and two devotional medals found during aforementioned excavations are analyzed. The oldest find is that of Byzantine follis, and the most recent is from the 20th century, but the majority of finds can be dated to the Late Medieval and Early Modern Age which corresponds to the horizons of majority of graves.

- by Blanša Maljković and +1
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- Archaeology, Early Modern History, Numismatics, Medieval Archaeology

ARISTOCRATS WITH COINAGE RIGHTS IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY HUNGARY
Sigismund of Luxemburg granted coinage rights to several aristocrats. Some came to possess important mints with impressive past record, while others were offered a possibility to set up a completely new minting house. Yet none was ever authorised to mint coins of his own in the mint thus obtained. Consequently, it is more correct to refer to the license granted by the king as a right of minting rather than as an autonomous right of coinage, which remained a manifestation of sovereignty, let alone as a private coinage.
In the course of the fifteenth century, four major groups groups can be distiguished among the beneficiaries of the royal licenses. Sigismund himself and his immediate successors tried to further support the lords who had a vested interest in the defense of the borders („defenders of the borders”). Wladislas I and John Hunyadi identified the bishops, who attended the king’s coronation of 1440 in almost full numbers, as a crucial support group, and accordingly rewarded them with minting rights („crowning bishops”). After the tragic death of the king at Varna in 1444, the country was for some time governed by elected captains, some of whom also provided for a continuation of coinage. And finally, in 1459/1460-ban emperor Frederick III tried to win over some magnates in Western Hungary by granting them minting rights („Paladine”).
The system of delegated magnate coinage, which had been introduced by Sigismund, came to an end under Matthias Corvinus. In the framework of a comprehensive financial reform, Hungarian coinage was also fundamentally reorganised, whereby the functioning of the minting chambers became both better regulated and more effective.

Die hier dargestellten Fundstücke waren von mit Metalldetektoren ausgerüsteten Amateuren gefunden, welche in mehreren Jahren zusammengesammelt wurden. Das hervorgekommene numismatische Material ist kein geschlossener Gesamtfund, sondern tauchte von einem größeren Gebiet hervor. Aufgrund der Funde läßt es sich feststellen, daß auch das Material einer Geldfälscherwerkstatt gefunden werden konnte. Im Gesamtfund finden wir Rohstoffe, Kupferbleche
(6 Stk.), von denen die runden Plättchen ausgeschnitten wurden und viele rundförmige ungeprägte Blechplättchen (43 Stk.) sind auch verblieben. Bei den Fundstücken wurden auch Untersuchungen
zwecks Stoffzusammensetzungen durchgeführt, so stellten wir fest, daß manche versilbert sind, aber es gibt auch welche, auf denen es keine Prägung gibt. Unter den Fundstücken gibt es auch falsche Münzen, 26 Stk. sind eindeutig als Verfälschung zu betrachten. Im Hinblick auf die falschen und originellen Münzen, sowie auf die Größendaten und Münzenbilder sind wir zu dem Schluß gekommen, daß die Geldfälschung in der Zeit zwischen 1621–1659 gelaufen ist, vielleicht während der Herrschaft von Ferdinand II (1619–1637).

- by Máté Varga
- •
- Numismatics, Medieval Hungary, Medieval numismatics, Medieval Coins

A roundup of the various coins, coin hoards and coin-related items found in Norfolk during 2017 and earlier. From Norfolk Archaeology 2018

- by Vladimir Kusik
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- Croatian Archaeology, Medieval Coinage, Byzantine coins, Carolingian coinage

W pracy przedstawiono odkrycie niewielkiego skarbu z XIV wieku na grodzisku w Radomiu. Wśród monet zidentyfikowano dwa egzemplarze nieznanego dotyczas typu denarów, wybitych dla księstwa Sandomierskiego w czasach panowania Władysława... more

- by Maciej Trzeciecki and +1
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- Numismatics, Medieval Archaeology, Medieval numismatics, Piast Dynasty

Bruno Jané et Philippe Schiesser, Les outils monétaires du Musée de La Cour d’or - Metz Métropole et les techniques de fabrications du « Grand Est », actes du colloque coorganisé par la SENA et le Musée de La Cour d’Or – Metz Métropole « Le monnayage à Metz et en Pays lorrain de l'Antiquité à nos jours » du 27 au 30 septembre 2018, Recherches et travaux de la Société d’Études Numismatiques et Archéologiques 9, 2019, p. 195-222.

Medieval coinage of Willem of Horn and Dirk of Perwijs

In the spring of 2021, one of the authors of this article received information about the discovery of a small deposit of the Grand Prince of Lithuania Vitovt’s coins near the village of Rognedin, Bryansk region of Russia. They were struck in Smolensk shortly after this city became part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the early 15th century. It consisted of 16 pennies with the image of the princely sign of Vitovt.
The local duke Yuri Svyatoslavich started the Smolenskian coinage about 1401, which was then continued by Vitovt after he captured the city. The weight of the Smolensk money was chosen according to the situation at the beginning of the 15th century – it almost exactly corresponded to the weight of coins of its powerful neighbors – the Vilna pennies of Jagiello and the Moscow half-dengas of Vasiliy Dmitrievitch.
Vitovt replaced the initials of Yuri Svyatoslavich with his own princely sign – Pillars. Coin masters who worked in Smolensk were noted for one of the highest levels of artistic quality in Rus’. The authors have compiled a die catalog of Smolensk coinage of Yuri Svyatoslavich and Vitovt, which includes 117 coins that form 36 die combinations.

- by Dzmitry Huletski
- •
- Numismatics, Lithuanian History, Medieval numismatics, Medieval Coinage

Coins have a value which can be used as a form of payments for certain goods and services. On the hand, coins have uniquely represented the country of origin which have a value on it. This study aims to classify the 20 most traded coin values together including the new coin Philippine currency with its corresponding information which greatly helps people to identify the value of the coin and other relative information of the coin. The study applied the SVM for classification and Canny Edge method for feature extraction and Euclidean distance for coin detection with a result of 100% classification and recognition accuracy with 3.4 seconds in speed of detecting the coin features.

The study is part of a long-term project aiming to identify heraldic elements in the designs on German bracteates from the Khotyn hoard (late twelfth – early thirteenth century). The article analyses several previously unpublished images shown on the treasure coins as well as on coins from the core collection of the Hermitage, which are believed to be linked with the Khotyn hoard.

This paper explores the different attitudes and approaches to the display and use of coins in modern museums. The paper may be of interest to the museum employee and offers advice for achieving the optimal potential from even the most... more

- by wladyslaw duczko
- •
- Medieval Archaeology, Medieval Scandinavia, Islamic Studies, Viking Studies

Kroz ovaj seminar pokušat ćemo u prvom redu objasniti povijesnu pozornicu koja je dala sve uvjete Šubićima da postanu jedna od najutjecajnijih obitelji hrvatske srednjovjekovne povijesti, a nakon toga pregledno će se prikazati njihov novac. Njihova priča započinje sklapanjem unije sa Ugarskom, a njihov cilj bio je provoditi uspješnu
međunarodnu politiku gdje su glavni akteri bili ugarski i mletački plemići. Najveći procvat doživjeli su za vrijeme bana Pavla I. Šubića koji je ostavio neizbrisiv trag u hrvatskoj povijesti i kao centralnom liku pridana mu je najveća pozornost u ovom seminaru.

- by Pio Domines Peter
- •
- Medieval Croatian History, Medieval Coinage

Unlike the 'cashless' economies of the contemporary Pala (Bengal) and Rashtrakuta (Deccan) realms, there existed a prolific silver coinage within the borders of the Gurjara-Pratihara empire (Ganges valley and north-eastern Rajasthan). In the eighth century, these comprised an anonymous coinage called the ‘Vigrahapala dramma’; in the ninth century they consisted of the ‘Srimadadivaraha dramma’. Both series are arguably descended, via the early medieval ‘Indo-Sasanian’ coinage, from the silver coinage of the Sasanian Empire.
This paper reviews evidence published by researchers to date on the temporal sequencing and evolution of these two series, and compares the results to treasure trove hoard records, in order to determine the geographic distribution of the coins in circulation, and identify possible minting places. Reference to the few available metallurgical findings rounds out the picture of denominational structure and the coins’ monetary function.

- by John Deyell
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- Economic History, Numismatics, Early Medieval History, Monetary history

Enciclopedia de la Moneda Medieval Románica en los Reinos de León y Castilla (ss. VIII-XIV). Vol. I: Desde Pelayo (722) a Alfonso VII (1157); Vol. II: Desde Sancho III y Fernando II (1157) a Enrique I y Alfonso IX (1217-1230); y Vol. III:... more

A beginner's guide to Medieval Austrian coins

- by David Ruckser and +1
- •
- Medieval History, Medieval Studies, Medieval Coinage, Viking Age and Medieval coinage and monetary history

Experts have recently reported false bronze nummi with large reverse monograms of late Roman Imperial and Ostrogothic leaders. The experts include Alain Gennari and other members of Lamoneta.it, but not the present author. He is simply presenting this supplement to his paper “The Ricimer Monogram with Its Mysterious Additional A” and informing readers about the likelihood of spurious pieces thought to be of modern Serbian origin. His previous paper presented two Ricimer pieces, and here he presents two pieces with monograms interpreted as Eraric’s by some sources, but as mere fantasies by others. Some disagreement regarding authenticity appears to remain among some experts and dealers.

- by Aden Kumler
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- Material Culture Studies, Numismatics, Semiotic Anthropology, Sigillography

The identification of the counts of the mint-chambers and their chamber based on the surviving documents is deficient and often uncertain. The list of the known counts of the chambers is refined with some data in respect of Esztergom and... more

A small set of five dirhams from the Emirate period is presented, located inside the late rural church of El Rebollar (El Boalo, Madrid). This ecclesiastical building can be dated from the grave goods of the tombs and from the C14 analysis applied to the bone samples from the individuals buried between the second half of the viith century and the beginning of the viiith century. The coins have a closing date that refers to the period of government of al-Ḥakam I (180-206 h./ad 796-822). The study of this numismatic set in its context, the reading without difficulty of the legends which allow us to deduce variations in the coins and the analysis of their composition, which we present in this study, provide data which contribute to a better understanding of the production and circulation of emerald money in the central area of the Iberian Peninsula.

- by Javier Salido Domínguez and +2
- •
- Islamic Economics, Late Antique Archaeology, Early Medieval Archaeology, Numismatics

The book examines the moneyers, those men responsible for minting the king’s coinage, within developing urban society in England during the tenth and eleventh centuries to address both their status and whether the internal workplace organisation of the mints might reflect the complexity of an Anglo-Saxon ‘state’. In reviewing the minting operation of late Anglo-Saxon England, and the men in charge of those mints, a better picture of the social history of pre-Conquest England is realised. These men were likely part of the thegnly or burgess class and how they organised themselves might reflect broader trends in how those outside of the aristocracy acted in response to royal directives. The book outlines a new and innovative method of analysing the organisation of labour in Medieval England. These new techniques and methodologies provide support for a previously unknown level of complexity in English minting.
Accompanying the book are several digital downloads, including the Moneyers of England Database, 973-1086, consisting of information on 3,646 periods of moneyer activity derived from 28,576 individual coins produced at ninety-nine geographic locations.

A beginner's guide to the more common Medieval coins of Hungary

- by David Ruckser
- •
- Medieval Coins, Medieval Coinage, Hungarian Coins

Dear Reader, Your attention is called to the second edition of the catalog of the Lithuanian coins minted within the reigns of Alexander Jagiellon and Sigismund the Old ( 1495 – 1536). The first edition included the coins of only one denomination, half-groats. This book covers all the coins minted in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania within the defined period. The book presents approximately twice as many coins as were published in the first edition.

- by Dzmitry Huletski and +1
- •
- Numismatics, Numismatic, History of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Lithuanian History