220 Baker
Political and Economic Parameters
In the Byzantine and Latin traditions alike, the production of coinage was
the prerogative of the empire or prince. The same political authorities
also attempted to control the monetary specie otherwise available in their
domains, for instance older or foreign coins. The enforcement of coins was
usually achieved through the systems of taxation, which acted as filters. All
the authorities in the territories under discussion supported coinage for very
similar reasons. Coinage was required to levy direct and indirect taxes and
thereby to ensure the smooth flow of revenue into the coffers of state. The
minting process in itself also produced revenue, by retaining a percentage of
the metal which entered the mint. The states needed to meet certain expendi-
tures with coinage: state salaries were paid, mercenaries were employed, pub-
lic works were instigated, and so forth. There was usually a close symbiosis
of land owning and commercial interests with those ruling elites who deter-
mined monetary policy. In this way, the latter became sensitive to the need for
good coinage. The ideal state of affairs, whereby copious and well-controlled
stocks of coinage were in constant production and circulation, could naturally
not always be achieved. Old and sub-standard coins, or indeed outright coun-
terfeits, were prevalent, and coinage in Greece followed bullion movements,
which were partially beyond the rulers’ power. Adverse economic or strategic
developments could seriously undermine monetisation. The states and their
rulers were occasionally themselves responsible for producing and dissemi-
nating bad quality coinage, for short term gains, often in military contexts.
The Coinages of Greece: Typology and Archaeology
The 19th-century studies of Gustave Schlumberger and Pavlos Lambros, Nicolò
Papadopoli, and even of Félicien De Saulcy, are still useful today.6 In these
early years, medieval Greek coins benefitted from being included in more gen-
eral treatments of crusader coins. Hoards and excavation finds of such coins
were published sporadically in the 19th and earlier 20th century,7 also from
areas away from southern Greece.8 The same coins were also subjected to
6 For works and authors referred to in this section, see the bibliography appended to this vol-
ume. The importance of these older studies has also been underlined by Metcalf in 1993.
7 See for instance the contributions by Caron, Cox, Cumano, Lord Grantley, and Lenormant.
8 See the hoards published by De Petra, De Vogüé, and Schwabacher.