218 Baker
(“die study”). Coins found in specific contexts, either concealed in bulk for
later retrieval (“hoards”), or lost fortuitously (“stray” or “single” coin finds),
add another analytical dimension. This archaeological record includes locally-
produced as much as imported coins. These data need to be viewed in politi-
cal, military, social and economic contexts, to which they are closely related.
A lot has to date been achieved in the numismatic groundwork required
towards a monetary history of medieval Greece. An essay such as the present
one would not be the right place to publish new archaeological data or to weigh
up at great length the denominations or datings of monetary issues, nor to create
a critical apparatus. Instead, I have decided to offer a narrative which is greatly
informed by the progress made in publications of the last couple of decades,
while anticipating also other materials and analyses to be presented shortly.3
After defining the geographical, political and economic parameters of this essay,
I have opted to present the subject matter in five stages: first, I will discuss the
state of research on typology and archaeology; then I will assess separately the
coin finds and the indigenous coinage production of medieval Greece; this will
lead to a diachronic overview of coin usage; and last, in lieu of a summary, I will
seek to extrapolate wider historical implications from these data.
Geographical Parameters
Greece underwent very distinctive monetary developments during medieval
times, which sets this period apart from the previous and successive Byzantine
and Ottoman phases (before 1204 and after 1460 respectively). In many respects,
however, Greece partook in general (western) European trends,4 bearing in
mind nevertheless Greece’s rather exceptional position, initially regarding its
Byzantine heritage, then as a colonial construct, and lastly as a troubled out-
post both of the Byzantine and Latin worlds.
While the chronological limits of the present study are clear enough, the
territories which have been chosen bear some explanation. At the beginning of
the 13th century the entire Aegean area still relied heavily on Byzantine-style
copper and gold coinages which were minted at Constantinople, Thessalonica
and Nicaea/Magnesia. In the further course of the Middle Ages a few higher-
quality western coinages became available in all of these territories, whether
they were ruled by Latins, Byzantines, Slavs, or Turks, particularly Venetian
3 Notably in my forthcoming book Coinage and Money in Medieval Greece 1200–1430.
4 The standard account of the medieval Latin monetary tradition is given in Peter Spufford,
Money and its use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988).