Academia.eduAcademia.edu

Early medieval numismatics

description1,272 papers
group10,059 followers
lightbulbAbout this topic
Early medieval numismatics is the study of coinage and currency systems from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the rise of the Renaissance in the 15th century. This field examines the production, circulation, and socio-economic implications of coins during this transformative historical period.
lightbulbAbout this topic
Early medieval numismatics is the study of coinage and currency systems from the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century to the rise of the Renaissance in the 15th century. This field examines the production, circulation, and socio-economic implications of coins during this transformative historical period.

Key research themes

1. How do coin hoards and single finds illuminate the circulation, production, and socio-political context of early medieval coinage?

This research area focuses on the analysis of coin hoards and isolated coin finds from early medieval contexts, exploring their composition, provenance, minting authorities, and archaeological contexts to reconstruct monetary circulation patterns, political influence, and economic conditions during the early medieval period. Understanding hoard composition and deposition sheds light on trade routes, territorial control, and the role of coinage as both currency and symbolic capital.

Key finding: The Tittleshall hoard, comprising 184 Anglo-Saxon Hand and Crux type pennies of Aethelred II, reveals a stratified deposition with older Hand types concentrated in the lower layers of the vessel and more abundant Crux types... Read more
by CEREN ÜNAL and 
1 more
Key finding: The Melik Ahmet Street hoard contains 394 gold coins dominated by 391 Byzantine histamena dating to the eleventh century (reigns of Romanus III Argyrus, Constantine IX, Michael VII Ducas), with detailed iconographic... Read more
Key finding: Presentation of two previously unpublished sixth-century Byzantine pentanummia from the Girona region (territorium Gerundensis) adds rare evidence for Byzantine monetary circulation in the northeastern Iberian Peninsula... Read more
Key finding: Comprehensive inventory collating coin finds, including late medieval hoards, stray finds, and single coins, with detailed bibliographic references, forms a foundational dataset for studying distribution, dating, and typology... Read more

2. What iconographic and typological evidence on early medieval coins reveals about political authority, cultural identity, and cross-cultural interactions?

This theme investigates the imagery, legends, inscriptions, and typologies utilized on early medieval coinage to understand how rulers projected legitimacy, how cultural and religious identities were expressed, and the ways coin design indicates interactions with neighboring cultures or traditions. Particular attention is given to portraiture, heraldic symbols, imitations, and religious iconography on coins and associated jewelry items.

Key finding: The coinage struck in the name of Aethelstan II of East Anglia, identified with the Viking warlord Guthrum in the 880s, provides numismatic evidence for the Viking presence and political integration in Anglo-Saxon England... Read more
Key finding: The newly discovered 7th-century shilling from Norfolk, showing a unique blend of Pagan (Valknut symbol) and Christian (cross) imagery, represents a transitional phase in Anglo-Saxon coin iconography during the conversion... Read more
Key finding: Analysis of late medieval finger rings with heraldic motifs from the Wiener Neustadt hoard reveals a heterogeneous assemblage reflecting the circulation of symbolic imagery, including formalized heraldic emblems and personal... Read more
Key finding: The examination of a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon gold pendant imitating the obverse of a solidus of Emperor Honorius reveals a locally produced object blending Roman imperial iconography with non-coinage manufacturing techniques... Read more

3. How do non-coin metallic materials and fragmented artifacts contribute to understanding monetary practices and material culture in late antique to early medieval economies?

This research area explores the role of base metal fragments, scrap metal (hackbronze), and other non-coin metallic artifacts in monetary and economic contexts of late antiquity and early medieval periods. Rather than viewing such materials solely as recycling waste, recent scholarship considers them as integral to social constructions of value, transitional phases in monetization, and expressions of economic complexity and decline.

Key finding: By analogy with studies on Hacksilber, this paper advances the conceptualization of 'hackbronze'—bronze scrap and fragments—as an active medium of exchange and value in late Roman and early medieval economies, emphasizing the... Read more
Key finding: Although focused on an urban architectural context, excavation results reveal long-term usage patterns including deposition contexts likely containing metal objects, which, by association with broader late antique material... Read more

All papers in Early medieval numismatics

En 2018, l'Institut archéologique liégeois a acheté en vente publique un délicat portrait en miniature du prince-évêque Jean-Théodore de Bavière (fig. ) 2 . Cette miniature ovale de 5 x 6 cm, réalisée à la gouache et à la mine de plomb... more
L'attenta revisione della monetazione in argento del V secolo riserva numerosi spunti di riflessione e molte occasioni di approfondimento 1. Nel primo volume dell'anno 2025 di questa rivista, usai queste parole in apertura del mio... more
Centola, un casale del basso Cilento, assurge al rango di "Universitas" nel tredicesimo secolo, durante il periodo Svevo, 1189-1266 (figura 1). Il riconoscimento della personalità giuridica delle Universitas si ebbe con la costituzione di... more
kann vorab Kontakt mit der Redaktion aufgenommen werden. Bezug: Das Jahrbuch kann gegen eine Schutzgebühr von 15,00 € pro Exemplar beim Vorstand der Kölner Münzfreunde erworben werden (
Analysis of the alloy of AE2 coins of the late Roman emperors Leo I and Zeno may provide additional confirmation of the hypothesis that these issues were minted in Chersonesus (Crimea). The percentages of lead and tin in the coins from... more
L'intervento presenta le ricerche condotte nel 2023 e 2024 presso l'insediamento di età romana e tardoantica della Pantirola, svolte nell'ambito della ricerca dottorale dell'autore. Queste hanno preso le mosse dal ritrovamento, durante... more
Le champ couvert par la Revue numismatique (RN) comprend la numismatique et l'histoire monétaire et s'étend à l'archéologie, l'histoire économique, l'histoire de l'art ainsi qu'à l'épigraphie, la sigillographie ou la glyptique dans leurs... more
Research on early medieval Piast coinage has traditionally concentrated on typological, chronological, and iconographic aspects. Knowledge of the origin of the raw material used for minting, however, has so far remained fragmentary and... more
The National Museum of Slovenia has two silver ingots in its collection from the mid-fourth century AD, although unfortunately, they lack information about the context of their discovery. The ingots are in the shape of a double axe-head,... more
At the death of Lothair I (855), the denari issued in the Kingdom of Italy stopped bearing the name of the mint of origin. They adopted the representation of a church in the form of a tetrastyle temple accompanied by the legend XPISTIANA... more
В сборник вошли труды интернационального коллектива учёныхнумизматов, занимающихся историей нумизматики, монетного дела и развития денежного обращения на землях Причерноморского региона, Балкан и Малой Азии с самых древнейших времён -от... more
Historia de la sociedad presente. El mundo y sus desvelos desde 1990, coordinada por José Manuel Azcona Pastor y Miguel Madueño Álvarez, es una obra que ofrece una mirada amplia y profunda sobre los cambios que han marcado el mundo desde... more
Note de lecture du nouvel ouvrage de référence sur les monnaies allemandes de l'époque ottonienne et salienne, qui remplace progressivement le Dannenberg.
The numismatic collection of the Zane family has many extraordinary features in the panorama of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Venetian collecting. Formed in the last decades of the seventeenth century with only a few hundred antique... more
This paper aims to present a Francisco Pereira Passos biographical outline, important character in carioca´s public life who implemented the most urban reform of Rio de Janeiro´s history.
This paper focuses on a highly intriguing numismatic monument: the issue of anonymous juchid dangi, the reverse legend of which features a date written in words in the Turkic language, based on the Anno Domini era.
Небольшой доклад об одном из кладов из собрания Национального исторического музея Республики Беларусь, прочитанный в 2018 г. с целью постепенного введения в научный оборот всей коллекции музея
Corpus scriptorum christianorum orientalium. louvain. Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae. Bonn. Δελτίον τῆς Χριστιανικῆς ἀρχαιολογικῆς ἑταιρείας. Athènes.
The text concerns the results of recent research into the origins of recoinage in Poland. The first information about any kind of a tax in that state dates back to the 1170s, but this undoubtedly refers to the periodic and developed... more
This article focuses on circulation patterns, which do not apply equally to all types of Roman Republican coins in the Imperial period – visually different coins, such as the denarii serrati, were hoarded differently in some regions of... more
Circulation of coinage involves not only travel through space but also movement in time: coins enter circulation, then circulate for a longer or shorter amount of time, with greater or lesser intervals of immobility, and finally leave... more
УДК 94+902/904 ББК 63.3+63.4 П 30 Ответственный редактор: Мустафаев Ш. М., доктор исторических наук Рецензенты: Байтанаев Б. А., доктор исторических наук Гомзин А. А., к. и. н. П 30 Петров П. Н., Воякин Д. А., Калинин В. А. Первый... more
We are glad to draw your attention to the 9th volume of the research series “Rus', Lithuania, Horde”, specially dedicated to the XVI International Numismatic Congress, which is going to be held in Warsaw (Poland) in September 2022. For... more
A unique manuscript (inv. n. 5702), dated c. Ad 1471 and kept in the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts (Matenadaran) in Yerevan, testifies that towards the end of the rule by the Qarā Qoyūnlū ruler Jahān Shāh (Ad 1439-1467), the Armenian... more
This article deals with a preliminary diachronic study about the ritual use of coinage in funerary contexts in the modern province of Veneto between the third and tenth centuries ad, identifying the peculiarities of each period based on... more
Merovingian obols, half-deniers from the years 670-750, have the unusual feature of being uniface. This is exceptional in French coin production, unlike Germanic tradition. The corpus now includes 103 obols, making it possible to... more
This paper presents 540 pennies from Brita Malmer's combination groups 3-6 (KG 3-KG6). The analysis divides the coin types into pennies from Ribe and Haithabu, the most prominent towns in Viking Age Denmark. The coins are divided into 10... more
К онец I в. до н. э. -начало I в. н. э. в истории Боспорского царства можно рассматривать как своеобразный «темный период», характеризующийся отсутствием в письменных и эпиграфических источниках какой-либо внятной информации как о... more
Abstract The traditional narrative of Central European historiography postulates that early medieval exchange was based primarily on redistribution, with a marginal role for the market and a monetarised economy. However, important... more
يُعد القنديل من أبرز أدوات الإضاءة الصناعية، التي ظهرت على النقود الإسلامية، حيث ظهر على النقود النحاسية خلال العصر المملوكي البحري في عهد السلطان الناصر حسن بن قلاوون (748-752هـ/1347-1351م)&(755-762هـ /1354-1361م)، ثم ظهر بعد ذلك في... more
This project aims to inventory, classify, and enhance the archives of Jean Lafaurie (1914–2008), a leading figure in French numismatics and former curator of the Cabinet des Médailles at the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Through his... more
Este estudio analiza el fenómeno de los billetes municipales emitidos durante la Guerra Civil Española (1936–1939) y su posterior reproducción, reimpresión y falsificación en contextos históricos, artísticos y comerciales. A través de una... more
Structure de l'étude 1. Une problématique « nouvelle » ? 1.1 L'état de l'art... 1.2 Amulettes et talismans 1.3 Des amulettes : pour qui ? 1.4 Les monnaies perforées : où et quand ? 1.4.1 Chez les Grecs 1.4.2 Chez les Celtes 1.4.3 Chez les... more
In 832, the Frankish emperor Lothar I promulgated a capitulary in the royal palace of Pavia („Hlotharii capitulare Papiense“) confirming selected chapters of the capitularies of his predecessors Charlemagne and Louis the Pious. These... more
My personal selection of the "Top Ten" medieval coins. An informal  talk to the Fairfax Coin Club, Fairfax Virginia, 9 September 2025
CV. Aren Jaya is an AC service provider located in South Tangerang. In 2017 this shop began to develop by opening new and used AC sales services, AC installation services, used washing machine sales services and washing machine service... more
plomo conservadas, todas sueltas, la de Fernando VII puede atribuirse sin problemas a su extenso diploma ratificatorio; pero ninguna de las otras dos, ambas de Juana la Loca viuda, idénticas, pertenece a su carta de privilegio y... more
Nell'ultimo decennio a Luni hanno preso avvio numerosi progetti di ampio respiro volti a migliorare la fruizione dell'area archeologica e del Sistema Museale, in concomitanza con la programmazione di eventi, studi e ricerche condotti... more
En este artículo se presenta un estudio sobre las acuñaciones de plata realizadas en la ceca de Valladolid en 1651, la cual fue una de las casas de monedas peninsulares que se utilizaron para eliminar de la circulación la moneda feble... more
En Toledo, ciudad de los Orígenes de Europa, se producen con frecuencia hallazgos arqueológicos interesantes. En esta ocasión, dirigidos por el DR. ARTURO RUIZ TABOADA, tendremos la oportunidad de acceder a la excavación del subsuelo de... more
Download research papers for free!