228 Baker
Single data bring us in touch with the specie used most prolifically in every-
day contexts. A constant feature of all the sites is the existence of a low grade
form of monetisation, constituted by copper and billon coins of the Byzantine
tradition, which were either minted in the 12th-century empire, in the succes-
sor states in the Balkans and Anatolia in the 13th century, or eventually copied
in Greece itself. This tradition was continued in a sense by the so-called petty
denomination issues of Athens and Achaea in the middle of the same century,
and then later on by a mass of counterfeit tournois and torneselli, or low value
issues of the same denominations produced in the first half of the 14th century
by the Catalans in Thebes and John ii Orsini at Arta, or at Byzantine Mistra or
Monemvasia at the turn of the 15th century. Above this constant mass of low
grade coins, we can discern different generations of higher quality silver-based
currencies. Tournois of the main Greek mints (Glarenza, Thebes, Naupactus)
of the 13th and 14th centuries, and their successors, the torneselli of the mint
of Venice (from 1353), were available throughout the analysed area. More spe-
cific was the circulation pattern of English sterling pennies and French deniers
tournois in the earlier part of the 13th century. These were mostly limited to
mainland Greece, the Peloponnese, and the islands. Epirus and Thessaly, by
contrast, had a larger inclination towards the more valuable Venetian silver
grosso in the same period. From the third and fourth decade of the 14th cen-
tury, the smaller Venetian soldino, in many respects used as a substitute for
the Greek tournois and the English sterling, gained some prominence at more
southerly sites. The importance of the single find data—in addition to identi-
fying the lowest form of monetisation which would otherwise be rather elu-
sive—lie in allowing us to chart the proportions in which these silver-based
coinages circulated, and the injections and subtractions of specie into and
from circulation. There is a clear peak of indigenous Greek production around
1300–20, and money was very plentiful until about a decade or two later; and
then again by around 1400 a lot of the Venetian tornesello currency had been
introduced to Greece, and maintained a good presence for another 20 years
at least. By contrast, the provision of better quality coinage was much more
sporadic and haphazard in the 13th century. To judge by the record of stray
finds, the main political authorities of Greece in the period after c.1250 oper-
ated on the whole a tight control over the main silver coinages, and culled spe-
cie as much as injecting it. Because they are so plentiful, stray finds can also
allow us to chart the historical fates of the sites in which they were found, in
demographic or economic terms. Athens as a whole is thereby identified as
the most consistent of all the known Greek locations, with a smooth transition
from Byzantine to Frankish times, and going strong through the Burgundian,
Catalan, and subsequent phases of its history. The other significant observation