BOOK REVIEW: MEDIEVAL EUROPEAN COINAGE, VOL. 8

Rory Naismith, Medieval European Coinage, Band 8, Britain and Ireland c. 400-1066. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2017. Hardcover. Thread stitching. 866 p., 60 bw pl. 246 x 189 mm. ISBN-13: 9780521260169. 150 pounds.

There aren’t many books I would deem an absolute “must” for every numismatic library. The MEC is one of them. MEC stands for Medieval European Coinage and every single volume is a kind of summary of the entire knowledge currently existing on medieval coins of a certain area. It consists of a comprehensive account of the current state of research as well as an illustrated catalogue, which can be used to classify every medieval coin. The MEC is a sort of basis work like the RIC or the Jaeger. If you have the MEC in your book shelf, no medieval coin will be left unclassified.

At least, this applies to the areas already covered by the MEC. There are the Early Middle Ages, which was the first volume of the series, published in 1986. More than a decade later, volume 14 followed with coins of Southern Italy, Sicily and Sardinia. Five years later, volume 6 on the Iberian Peninsula was published. And in 2016 there were even two new releases: Volume 12 with Northern Italy, which we recently introduced in CoinsWeekly, and now volume 8 on the coins of Britain and Ireland, which covers the years between around 400 and 1066.

The work was published by Rory Naismith, who teaches medieval history of Britain at Cambridge. He is predominantly interested in the Anglo-Saxons and their neighbours. He specialises in coin, money and economic history, and he is particularly interested in contemporary charters and documents. In 2012, he published a book by the title Money and Power in Anglo-Saxon England: the Southern English Kingdoms 757-865, which was awarded the International Society of Anglo-Saxonists‘ Best First Book prize 2013.

To read the complete article, see:
The new MEC-volume on Britain and Ireland (http://www.coinsweekly.com/en/News/The-new-MEC-volume-on-Britain-and-Ireland-/4?&id=4887)

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