236 Baker
particular period generally very little counterfeiting, with only a few specimens
known which imitate petty denomination issues or French tournois. This situ-
ation changed with the advent of Greek tournois. Their counterfeiting became
very common before 1300, to judge by the record from Corinth. It would appear
that Peloponnesian counterfeiters had a liking for the issues of Naupactus and
Athens, in particular. A particular, coppery issue imitating the main gvi.dvx
variety of Athens, sometimes combined with a Glarenzan reverse, has been
known at least since the time of Schlumberger. It can be dated with some con-
fidence just after 1311 and located in the eastern mainland, and for this reason I
have proposed to call these “Catalan counterfeits”. From exactly the same area
an increasingly large quantity of badly executed tournois counterfeits of dif-
ferent types soon invaded the Greek area, supplemented from similar issues
from other parts of the mainland produced in the further course of the 14th
century. It is very likely that the same counterfeiters/areas of production were
also responsible for a slightly less significant wave of tornesello counterfeits.
Coin Usage in Medieval Greece
This discussion is divided into blocks of half a century in which the different
monetary developments are summarized.
In 1200 the area under consideration was dominated by the Byzantine cop-
per tetarteron coinage of the Komnenoi and Angeloi emperors, which was
minted most likely entirely at Constantinople. This tetarteron coinage was
hoarded and not retrieved as a direct consequence of the conquest itself. It
also remained in circulation predominantly over the first few decades of the
13th century, in ever reducing quantities, but may have been confined to cer-
tain, mostly urban, contexts. This coinage was added to by counterfeits known
as the “Saronic Gulf Group”, which have been mentioned above. The tetart-
eron coinage of the 13th-century Byzantine successor states in Macedonia and
Anatolia was confined, within the area covered here, to Epirus. The Byzantine
billon trachy coinage was in the 12th century, also largely confined to Epirus
and the western mainland, but was probably also available in Thessaly and
perhaps in a thin band to the south thereof. The same 12th-century billon
trachy coinage first arrived in the other parts of the area under consideration,
notably most of the Peloponnese and the Cyclades, as a direct consequence of
the conquests, together with issues produced around 1204 and thereafter. The
Bulgarian identification of the earliest imitative issues has been much debated,
and it is in many respects preferable to denote them by the more neutral appel-
lation of “Faithful Copies”. It is now more than likely that these have to be