Small Change in the Early Middle Ages. New Perspectives on Coined Money, c. 400-1100

Rory Naismith (ed).Pages: 265 p.Illustrations:32 b/w, 2 tables b/w., 11 maps b/w Language(s):English. Publication Year:2025. Brepols. ISBN: 978-2-503-61537-0. Hardback -- Summary Coined money is a familiar part of day-to-day life, and has been for millennia in many societies. In the early Middle Ages, however, it worked rather differently. People across the former Roman Empire and beyond continued to think in terms of monetary units of account, but the supply and use of actual coin became highly uneven. Access to low-value coinage, small change, was particularly attenuated in western Europe, where gold and silver pieces predominated. This volume explores how people and societies dealt with changes to monetary systems. It looks at the experiences of different groups in society, from those who struggled with regimes that used only high value coins, to the elites who tended to benefit from those same conditions. The ten contributions to this volume consider diverse geographical areas from Byzantine Egypt to Italy, Francia, and Britain, identifying parallels and divergences among them. The chapters draw on cutting-edge archaeological and historical research to give a panorama of the latest thinking on early medieval money and coinage. TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction RORY NAISMITH The Quasi-Imperial Coinage of Southern Gaul: New Finds and Old Puzzles SIMON LOSEBY Small Change and Precious-Metal Coin in Late Antique Egypt (c. AD 320750): Circulation, Monetization, and Extraction THOMAS LAVER The Underestimated Carolingian Obol SIMON COUPLAND Coins, their Absence and Household Economies in Early Medieval Italy CAROLINE GOODSON Small Change in Early Medieval Italy: Some Open Questions ALESSIA ROVELLI The Gender of Money: Women, Men and the Use of Coin in Eleventh-Century Northern Italy JAMES NORRIE Traders, Coins and Authority in the Eleventh-Century Rhineland: The Toll Tariff of Koblenz CHARLES WEST Was there an Early Medieval Monetary Economy? RORY NAISMITH Conclusion: The Problem of Change CHRIS WICKHAM.…