Some questions about monetary history in Late Roman time

My guess is the Roman Empire was not a lot different from the American British colonies in the 1700s, and the young United States up until the later 1800s. People used the coins and tokens they had available. That included U.S. coins, foreign coins, privately made tokens and even stuff as old as Pine Tree Shillings that were struck in the 1600s.

Communication was by word of mouth, and many people living in the Roman Empire couldn't read. They used what was there. If it was some old denarius from a long dead emperor, so what?

Not all of the coins from the era were made of "junk." One of my favorites in the siliqua which was made of good silver. Maybe these didn't circulate that much. I have been able to buy high grade examples, but the emperors were issuing them. Here's an example, a Julian II siliqua. Julian ruled from 360 to 363.



Siliqua of Julian II, Obverse: D N FL CL IVLIANVS P F AVG “Our lord Flavius Claudius Julianus, dutiful, patriotic Augustus” VOT X MVLT XX “vows (prayers) to the tenth anniversary (of the emperor’s rule) or the hoped for twentieth anniversary.” Latin words: “Votis Decennalibus Multis Vicecennalibus

 

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Regarding the odd assemblage of mimimi circulating in Egypt in late antiquity, I recall having seen this news article a few months ago:
https://arkeonews.net/thousands-of-...-found-in-the-ancient-city-of-marea-in-egypt/

 

That is a very interesting article - actual archaeological evidence for the bags of coins that people apparently used at that time. But wow, are those some ugly coins!

Thanks for sharing that.

 

Hi @dltsrq and @Marsyas Mike,

There are several YouTube videos in Polish on the Polish digs at Marea [sadly for me only in Polish]. However representative coin finds are shown in slides starting at 17:30 in the presentation , which provides more coin types than the press release on the finds. Slides following include molds for casting imitation folles, later Byzantine and, and Islamic coin finds. The translated title of the slide presentation is "Monetary circulation in Byzantine and Umayyad Marea/Northern Havwaria: research on the monetary economy of the Mareotis region in the hinterland of Alexandria: assumptions of a new numismatic project."

- Broucheion

 

How fascinating.

So Vandalic coins also circulated in Byzantine Empire after all.

I also thought that “barbarous coins” meant that “barbarians” German tribes made those coins to use them in or around Germany within their OWN tribe. I did not realize that byzantine inhabitants made “barbarous coins” and that they circulated in the Byzantine Empire. Terrific. This changes my view and now I have to bid/buy also some “barbarous coins” sooner or later.