Book Series Studies in the Early Middle Ages, vol. 35

Small Change in the Early Middle Ages

New Perspectives on Coined Money c. 400–1100

Rory Naismith (ed)

  • Pages: approx. 300 p.
  • Size:156 x 234 mm
  • Illustrations:50 b/w, 10 tables b/w., 10 maps b/w
  • Language(s):English
  • Publication Year:2025


Pre-order*
  • € 85,00 EXCL. VAT RETAIL PRICE
  • ISBN: 978-2-503-61537-0
  • Hardback
  • Forthcoming (Jul/25)
image/svg+xml
Open Access


How did coined money vary across early medieval Europe, and what effect did it have on different societies?

BIO

Rory Naismith is a Lecturer in the History of England before the Norman Conquest at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge.

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. 320–750 AD): 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