NEW BOOK: COINAGE IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

Τhe third augmented edition of "Coinage in South-Eastern Europe 820-1396" just released.

D.M. Metcalf, Coinage in South-Eastern Europe 820-1396 Third augmented edition. Athens, 2016. In English. Hard cover+jacket, 28 cm, 468 pp., 8 plates; net weight 1700 gr. ISBN 978-618-82459-4-5 Retail price EUR 96.00

Presents a wide range of different coinages used in south-eastern Europe, including Byzantine, Venetian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Serbian, Bosnian, and Slavonian, the crusader issues of Frankish Greece, and coins from the cities of the Adriatic coasts, such as Kotor, Split, and Dubrovnik (Ragusa). The evidence of archaeological excavation and of several hundred coin-hoards is explored, in an attempt to assess the commercial, military, and other uses of money on pre-Ottoman times.

Τhe author's interest in south-eastern Europe was first aroused in 1954 when, as an undergraduate, he studied the geography of the area.

How coin hoards and single ﬁnds can create
regional perspectives for monetary history

No serious student, it is fair to say, should now for a moment accept MichaelHendy’s interpretation of the so-called “Bulgarian imitative” trachea. The hoard evidence from Bulgaria on which Hendy based his claim was deceptive and misleading: the hoards were later in their dates of deposit than the dates of issue of the three prototypes, his Types A, B, and C. These were exact, but poor-quality, copies of, respectively, Manuel’s fourth type of trachy and the standard issues of Isaac II and Alexius III.

Because they were so plentiful in the war-zone of central Bulgaria, Hendy concluded that they were issued by the Bulgarians in their military struggle with the Byzantine Empire. But his hypothesis did not explain the fact that the same types are also found in signiﬁcant numbers far away from central Bulgaria, for example in Athens, Africa, Arcadia, Istanbul, and Asia Minor. Were they carried there from Bulgaria? — No, they are Byzantine coins, which can be found more or less throughout the Empire. The clinching argument comes from a numerically clear contrast. If A + B + C = 100%, B is occasionally as high as 80–85% in the war zone, i.e. in the plain to the south of the Balkan Mountains, whereas further aﬁeld, 10–20%, or even 0%, is normal.

If these coins had been carried to Greece from Bulgaria, they would have preserved more closely their original proportions. Isaac’s type is plentiful in the region where the military struggle was focussed during his reign, but much less so elsewhere.