“Medieval Mediterranean Coinage: An Introduction”
Mediterranean Studies Summer Skills Seminar
23—26 June 2025 • Remote

Program/Syllabus Page

The Summer Skills Seminar,  “Medieval Mediterranean Coinage: An Introduction”  will be held via Zoom from Monday, 23 June to Thursday, 26 June 2025 from 10am to noon and 1pm to 3pm MDT.

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Program syllabus

Monday, 19 June 2025: Course introduction and the background of medieval Mediterranean coinage
10am to noon MDT
• Course introduction and participants introductions
• Basic bibliography
• How coins were made in the pre-modern period
• Coins of Roman and Persian antiquity
1 pm – 3 pm MDT
• The coinage of Late Antiquity, Axum, and Sasanian Persia
• Assignment for tomorrow morning – choose a coin to report on tomorrow with a 5-10 minute presentation

Tuesday, 20 June 2025: The Early Middle Ages
10 am to noon, MDT
Student reports on selected coins
Techniques of coin study – die study
Mediterranean coinage from the end of the Roman Empire to the seventh century
1 - 3 pm, MDT
Techniques of coin study – hoard study
Mediterranean coinage from the end of seventh century through the 9th century
Assignment: Report on a hoard with your coin or similar coins in it

Wednesday, 21 June 2025: The Central Middle Ages
10 am to noon MDT
Student report #2: Student Hoard Report
Techniques of coin study: metrology, scientific analysis
1 - 3 pm, MDT
• Mediterranean coinage from the tenth through the twelfth century
• Assignment: Report on an excavation with your coin or similar coins in it

Thursday, 22 June 2025: The Late Middle Ages
10 am to noon MDT
• Student report #3: excavation find of selected coin
• Coinage and the medieval economy
1 - 3 pm, MDT
• Mediterranean coinage from the thirteenth through the fifteenth century

Basic Bibliography

 Bibliographies
American Numismatic Society Library, online catalogue: http://data.numismatics.org/cgi-bin/libsearch
Elvira Clain-Stefanelli, Numismatic Bibliography (Munich, 1985).
Philip Grierson, Bibliographie Numismatique, 2nd ed. (Brussels, 1979).
Numismatic Literature (New York, semi-annual, 1947-2007), recent numbers online at http://www.numismatics.org/numlit/ .

 General Accounts and References
Andrew M. Burnett, Coins, Interpreting the Past (London, 1991)
Coin Hoards 1-8 (1975-1994), continued in The Numismatic Chronicle
Philip Grierson, Numismatics (London, 1975).
Christopher Howgego, Ancient History from Coins (London and New York, 1995).
William E. Metcalf, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage (Oxford and New York, 2012),

Byzantine Coins
Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection and in the Whittemore Collection, 5 vols. (Washington, 1966-99). Online
Wolfgang Hahn, Moneta Imperii Byzantini, 3 vols. (Vienna, 1973-); English translation of first two volumes: Wolfgang Hahn and M. H. Metlich, Money of the Incipient Byzantine Empire (Vienna, 2000-09)
Cécile Morrisson, Catalogue des monnaies byzantines de la Bibliothèque Nationale (Paris, 1970).
Warwick W. Wroth, Catalogue of the Imperial Byzantine Coins in the British Museum, 2 vols. (London, 1908).
Warwick W. Wroth, Catalogue of the coins of the Vandals, Ostrogoths and Lombards, and of the empires of Thessalonica, Nicaea and Trebizond in the British museum (London, 1911).

 Islamic Coins
Album, Stephen. Checklist of Islamic Coins. 3rd ed. Santa Rosa CA, 2011. Online
Catalogue of Oriental Coins in the British Museum, 10 vols, (London, 1875-1890)
Leo A. Mayer, Bibliography of Moslem Numismatics, India Excepted, 2nd ed. (London, 1954).
Michael B. Mitchiner, Oriental Coins and their Values: The World of Islam (London, 1977).
Richard Plant, Arabic Coins and How to Read Them (London, 1973).
Sylloge of Islamic Coins in the Ashmolean (Oxford, 2001- )

 European Coins
Arthur Engel and R. Serrure, Traité de Numismatique du Moyen Age, 3 vols. (Paris, 1891-1905).
Philip Grierson, The Coins of Medieval Europe (London, 1991).
Philip Grierson, “Numismatics,” in James M. Powell, Medieval Studies (Syracuse, 1976), pp. 103-50.
Medieval European Coinages, vols. 1 (Early Middle Ages), 6 (The Iberiand Peninsula) 8 (Britain and Ireland) 12 (Northern Italy), and 14 (Southern Italy); all that have appeared to date (Cambridge, 1986 -).
J. Porteous, Coins in History (London, 1969). F CJ59 .P65 1969
Peter Spufford, Money and Its Use in Medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1988).
Alan M. Stahl, "Coins," Oxford Bibliographies Online, Medieval Studies, https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/page/medieval-studies  

Online sources for coin images and descriptions
Coin Archives: http://pro.coinarchives.com/index.php; login: princeton; password soj7rhe
Acsearch: acsearch.info - Auction research
American Numismatic Society: http://numismatics.org/search/
British Museum: https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/search.aspx
Princeton University Numismatic Collection: https://catalog.princeton.edu/numismatics