Money And Currency In Medieval Greece 247
infiltrating the peninsula from Catalan and Navarrese areas of the mainland.
Soldini, by contrast, were very seldom counterfeited.
As in the earlier part of the 14th century, the eastern mainland was also during
the second half of the century and later ideally placed to receive coinages from the
eastern Aegean and further east—issues of Chios under the Mahonna Company,
Lesbos under the Gattilusio, the Knights of Rhodes, and the Kingdom of Cyprus.
Coins of the latter two entities have also been found in the Peloponnese and
have been brought in connection with the two main Hospitaller involvements
with Achaea. The same humble amalgam of Italian penny coinages as previously,
with a larger emphasis on the issues of Ancona, remained available in Greece.
The new tournois coinages of southern Italy of the 14th century, by contrast,
evidently did not cross the Ionian Sea. Numismatic proof for the availability of
Italian gold coinages in later 14th century Greece is as scanty as previously. With
the deterioration of the local currencies, seeking to fall back on a reliable inter-
national standard would have seemed a logical course of action. Nevertheless, it
remains difficult to state what percentage of the ducats and florins of the docu-
mentary sources was actually met in gold coinage. There is evidence that such
gold coins were occasionally hard to come by.
For the last of our periods, 1400–60, initially much remains the same as
before: the availability, or not, of gold; the modest arrival of coins from the East
and West (Ancona); and especially the domination of the Venetian tornesello
coinage. From the period of Doge Michele Steno (1400–13) the hoards contain
almost completely torneselli. The exceptions are soldino hoards from Larissa
and from Mesopotam in Albania; and one or two hoards from Sparta of local
tornesi; and finally, a cluster of hoards of either side of the Gulf of Corinth
with older tournois and soldini, which I have brought in connection with the
preferences of the Knights of St. John, who were present in the area at the turn
of the century. The territories of Carlo i Tocco were identified in some Venetian
documentation as a source of tournois counterfeits affecting the Peloponnese
in the early 15th century.
Tornesello production at Venice dropped considerably during the dogeship
of Tomasso Mocenigo (1414–23). It is possible that one or the other hoard clos-
ing in his issues might well have been deposited after his death, although this
would be difficult to prove. Also single torneselli dating 1353–1423 may well
have been used and lost after this watershed. The only hoards dating securely
thereafter are the one from Larissa cited above (which also contained an
Ottoman coin); the Lord Grantley hoard of tournois containing mostly issues of
the Italian mint of Campobasso (issued 1459–1462/63); and the very significant
Chalkis hoard, dating probably to the Turkish conquest of 1470, which might
also have resulted in the deposit of a hoard of jewellery which was acquired in