Early medieval numismatics

Numismatiker in Deutschland. Zur Situation im Jahre 2019, in: Geldgeschichtliche Nachrichten 54, 2019, 264-277.

Einleitung:
Numismatik ist die Wissenschaft, die zur Erforschung von Münzen und anderen Geldformen sowie artverwandten Objekten wie Medaillen dient. Personell ist die Numismatik ein Miteinander von fest angestellten Numismatikern im öffentlichen Dienst, Numismatikern mit Zeitverträgen, Numismatikern im Handel und den privaten Sammlern, die mit ihren Sammlungen und Forschungen seit jeher zur Weiterentwicklung des Faches beitragen. Dieser Beitrag ist der Gruppe der fest angestellten wissenschaftlichen Numismatiker in öffentlichen Einrichtungen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland gewidmet.

Korrigenda  und Ergänzungen (Stand 18.9.2019):

Korrigenda:
S. 266
Baden-Württemberg, in dem jahrelang die Numismatikerstellen reduziert wurden, unterstützt gute Projekte zur Numismatik im Rahmen des Numismatischen Verbundes in Baden-Württemberg.
…
Zudem führt die Universität Freiburg seit April 2017 das Projekt HisMün durch.

S. 272
Sonja Kitzberger M.A. (30%)
Münzkabinett, Landesmuseum Württemberg Stuttgart
sonja.kitzberger@landesmuseum-stuttgart.de

S. 273
Dr. Michael Kunzel (100 %)l
Deutsches Historisches Museum
Mittelalter und Neuzeit, Medaillen, Papiergeld und Wertpapiere
kunzel@dhm.de

S. 274
Dr. Daniel Graepler (20%)
Universität Göttingen, Institut für Klassische Archäologie, Kustos der Sammlungen
Antike, universale Sammlungsbetreuung, Mitglied bei KENOM und NUMiD
dgraepl@gwdg.de

Prof. Dr. Johannes Wienand (50%)
Technische Universität Braunschweig, Institut für Geschichtesissenschaft, Alte Geschichte (per Teilabordnung Leitung des Münzkabinetts am Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum)

S. 275 Anm. 11
Der Numismatische Verbund in Baden-Württemberg betreibt drei Domains: …

S. 276 Anm. 12
Reiss-Engelhorn-Museen

S. 276 Anm. 41
Johannes Wienand hat im Jahr 2018 von Düsseldorf nach Braunschweig gewechselt. In einem gemeinsam von der Technischen Universität Braunschweig und dem Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum durchgeführten Verfahren ist er auf die Professur für Alte Geschichte berufen worden und leitet per Teilabordnung zugleich die Münzsammlung am Museum.


Ergänzungen:

S. 266
Im Jahr 2018 hat die Technische Universität Braunschweig gemeinsam mit dem Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum eine Professur für Alte Geschichte eingerichtet, zu deren Profil die Betreuung der musealen Sammlung sowie numismatische Lehre zählen.

S. 268-269:
Weitere Münzsammlungen haben sich den sammlungsübergreifenden Verbünden  IKMK/NUMiD und/oder KENOM angeschlossen:
- Braunschweig, Münzsammlung der Technischen Universität (IKMK/NUMiD)
- Braunschweig, Münzforschungssammlung der Braunschweigischen Landessparkasse (IKMK)
- Wolfenbüttel, Münzsammlung des Museums Wolfenbüttel (IKMK)

S. 275 Anm. 6
Gölitzer 2001 [2004]

S. 277
Gölitzer 2001 [2004]: Ernst Gölitzer, Entstehung und Entwicklung des alexandrinischen Münzwesens von 30 v. Chr. bis zum Ende der julisch-claudischen Dynastie, Berlin 2004.

The article review one very rare for Bulgaria bronze Early Medieval coin-numus from a small nominal of the Vandal king-Thrasamund(496-523). The copy is a single find,minted at Carthage. Kept in Bulgarian private collection. Data about finds of Vandal Erly Medieval coins from the period 5-6 th century,found in the teritorry of Modern Bulgaria are unknown so far,or at least such information is not known to the author.

L'incontro intende proporre la riflessione su una particolare categoria di monete, ossia quegli esemplari che furono deliberatamente spezzati in due o più porzioni nel corso della loro circolazione, con la finalità di originare due o più 'monete' di valore minore, in periodi di insufficiente approvvigionamento di nominali divisionali da parte delle zecche. La tematica sarà affrontata con aggiornate metodologie di analisi, soprattutto sulla base della documentazione da recenti scavi archeologici che, grazie allo studio contestuale, può fornire indicazioni cronologiche più sicure. Appare anche necessario indagare i modi d'uso e il rapporto che la moneta frazionata intrattiene con i nominali di piccolo conto contemporaneamente circolanti, allargando l'ambito di indagine sia in senso geografico che cronologico, così da definire quadri regionali e questioni economiche, che possano poi comporre una visione generale, nella quale si evidenzino difformità e analogie.

When king Wamba portrayed himself in his coins with a closed crown, the stemma, and a sceptre, he was sending a clear message to the potentes of the kingdom: that the institution that he represented was of a divine nature, and that his status was therefore above that of the elite. The link between the crown and Jesus himself was also manifest in other symbols that were now beginning to appear in coins, such as that the fleur-delis and the references to Jesse's tree, and the epigraphic inscriptions with the abbreviation of the expression in domine nomine before the king's name. We have Julian of Toledo's account of Wamba's anointment as king, which clearly reproduced Samuel's anointment of Saul and David. The propagandistic nature of these series, in what we can consider the apogee of the Visigothic kingdom, at least from a numismatic perspective, are obvious. However, before it got there, Visigothic coinage, the issues of which had begun nearly two and a half centuries earlier, had undergone a substantial evolution. While the earliest series tries to imitate the prestigious coinage of the empire, also in terms of weight and precious metal content, the choice of iconographic types, although Roman in inspiration, had a propagandistic intention, if not necessarily only before the Visigothic people, but also before other barbarian kingdoms. At any rate, in the early middle ages, messages had to be accompanied by trust-generating weight and metal purity features, as demonstrated by the proclamations published by the authorities to force the population to accept coins as a means of payment, at least concerning money of other kingdoms. The successive measures implemented by different kings to adapt to the standard measures and weights went in the same direction. This work addresses the propagandistic use of Visigothic coinage from the earliest series (c. 420) until the latest (c. 714), including the most successful series, the agents that participated in the monetary system and the Public to which they were directed, without forgetting their economic function, in the broadest sense of the word. The numismatic evidence will be compared with the written record and the material culture also used to support these propagandistic messages.

SAMPLE of a paper published in Cuadernos de Estudios Gallegos, 66/132 (2019), pp. 45-76.
http://estudiosgallegos.revistas.csic.es/index.php/estudiosgallegos/article/view/450/454

ABSTRACT: Attending to the matter of local power in late antique Gallaecia, this article examines the cultural inheritance, civil identity, and representative institutions of the communities which composed it. The research interest is basically limited to the Suevic and Visigothic periods, being arranged according to the influence which non-civic organization, Roman municipal regime, Germanic representative institutions, and ecclesiastical ordering, had over the organizational framework of the local communities. The results show the cultural and juridical diversity which characterized these communities, calibrating their evolution and the tendency which gradually led them to a civil standardization.

SUMMARY: Historiografía; — Proposta de estudo; — O Parroquial suevo e as igrexas étnicas; — A serie Latina e a supervivencia municipal; — Conuentus, comitium, thing: a síntese representativa visigoda; — Unha definición unitaria: a plebs Christiana; — Conclusións.

FIGURES: 1. Mapa de referencia; — 2. Igrexas étnicas constatadas; — 3. Exemplares da serie Latina; — 4. Exemplares de numerario galaico-visigodo.

Con questo saggio ci prefiggiamo lo scopo di presentare e contestualizzare storicamente un denaro longobardo, finora inedito, coniato probabilmente nella zecca di Capua nel corso della seconda metà del X secolo, quando la potenza politica del principe Pandolfo I Capodiferro (961-981) raggiunse la propria acme. La scoperta di questa nuova tipologia permetterà di riprendere l’indagine sulla creazione dell’arcivescovado capuano (966) e, nel contempo, di inquadrare meglio una serie monetale poco nota, finora attribuita, con non pochi dubbi, alla zecca longobarda di Benevento.

The object of this essay is the presentation and the historical contextualization of a lombard denaro, so far unpublished, probably struck in the Capua’s mint during the second half of 10th century, when the political power of the prince Pandulf I Ironhead (961-981) reached its peak. The discovery of this new type will allow us to resume the survey on the creation of the Capuan archbishopric (966) and, meanwhile, to frame better a not many known coin series, so far attributed to the Benevento’s mint, between some doubts and uncertainties.

Consideration of coins in movement in and outside of the Visigothic kingdom in Iberia requires us to take into view not only the evidence of currency circulation itself, but also the many factors related to minting, including the rationale for issuing coin and how and why it might be distributed. In this article, the layout of the mint network, with its temporal and spatial and quantitative variables, leads to analysis of the state's need for gold currency. Lines of inquiry along administrative and commercial aspects show different forces at work with respect to the gold tremisses issued widely across the kingdom from Liuvigild's day. The state can be seen to have its own purpose in creating coin, but circulation and use were far from tied to a closed circuit revolving around taxation paid ultimately in gold currency by aristocrats. Copper-based currency in several forms and from various sources ran parallel to the 'regal' gold, though its circulation was more restricted on the whole and had a mostly separate use. Here the evidence on these matters and their implications are explored.

gathers scholars to NYC to work together for a few days with the renowned ANS collection and address questions relating to the currency. Speakers and guests will consider problems of materiality, identity, images and art, economy, minting, metallurgy and mining, as well as pertinent political, religious and cultural matters of Iberia and the broader Mediterranean economy in the Visigothic period. The ANS collection of Visigothic coins is the largest in the world, comprised of over 900 imitative, pseudo-imperial and Visigothic gold pieces. It includes specimens of all the major kings of the early medieval kingdom and one usurper (Iudila) and represents a great number of the nearly one hundred mint sites in Iberia. A couple hundred of the coins can be traced back to nineteenth-century collectors such as Rafael Cervera and Luiz José Ferreira, and many of Cervera's coins can be traced to the seventh-century hoard of La Capilla, near Seville. In this colloquium, we will engage a range of artifacts and research methods over the course of a keynote, plenary seminars, and a numismatic workshop. The keynote will prompt questions and encourage debate about methodological and historiographical issues related to the research and history of early medieval coins from around the Mediterranean. The rest of the colloquium will be divided according to complementing topics: the Visigothic coin collection and the historical, archaeological, archival and other issues involved in

This is the 'call for papers' for the forthcoming numismatic conference with the title "Coins for the Gods, coins for the merchants. Economy of the sacred compared to the economy of profane".
The conference is conceived as a follow up to our "Charon's obol" conference (Oct. 2017) and is organized by the EBSA in collaboration with a series of partners; it will be taking place in Athens between October 24th-26th, 2019.
The deadline for submitting your proposal is July 15th, 2019.
For more information, contact the following email addresses: piossif@ebsa.info or P.Iossif@let.ru.nl and please don't hesitate to spread the information around to people who might be interested.

OPEN ACCESS-When the British biologist John Haldane, finding himself in the company of theologians, was asked what we can learn about the mind of God from the study of His creations in nature, he replied, “an inordinate fondness for beetles.” To the humanists of the Renaissance it must have seemed that an inordinate fondness for coins and medals was the most salient characteristic of the men of antiquity. “For every ancient statue that we have today,” wrote the Paduan scholar Girolamo Ruscelli, “we have many, many medals [molte e molte medaglie ] throughout the world.” 2 The endless variety of images displayed on the ancient “medals,” so different from the unchanging and monotonous blazons of medieval and Renaissance coinage, was often remarked upon by the early numismatic writers. In addition to portraits, these small relics displayed buildings, gods and goddesses, allegorical figures, battle scenes, ships, and every sort of real and imaginary animal, including members of the order Insecta, like the bee on didrachmas of Ephesus illustrated by Wolfgang Lazius in 1558.

2015 wurde ein Schatzfund von 20 karolingischen Denaren in der Nähe von Bassenheim (Landeskreis Mayen-Koblenz) in Rheinland-Pfalz entdeckt. Sechs Münzen gehören zu dem häufigsten karolingischen Typ, dem sogenannten Tempeldenar Ludwigs des Frommen (814-840) mit der anonymen Umschrift "CHRISTIANA RELIGIO" an Stelle des Münzstättennamens. Zwölf weitere Münzen wurden unter Kaiser Lothar I. (840-855) geprägt: zehn in Dorestad, eine in Maastricht und eine in Trier. Aus Mainz stammt ein Denar, auf dessen Vorderseite das Monogramm Ludwigs des Deutschen (840-876) zu sehen ist. Das verbleibende Stück wurde unter Lothar II. (855-869) in Verdun geprägt.