- How Charlemagne laid the foundations for a coinage system for all of Europe.
- Why the coinage system of the Middle Ages is so diverse.
- Which literature you can use to delve even deeper into this vast field of collecting.
With his coinage reform carried out around the year 800, Charlemagne (768-814) reorganized the Frankish coinage of the Migration Period and created a system that was to retain its validity in essential features for the next 500 years: the only nominal in coinage became the silver denarius, of which 240 pieces were to go to a pound (about 400 g). This coin was minted throughout Europe (Germany = Pfennig, England = Penny, France = Denier or Italy = Denaro) in a variety of types.
In the Staufer period (12th/13th century) in Central Germany the denarius was minted as a large one-sided hollow pfennig (bracteate) of high artistic quality with sometimes impressive coin images. The granting of the right to mint coins by the rulers of the Middle Ages to ecclesiastical (bishoprics and monasteries) and secular (duchies and counties) institutions led to a large number of mints (sometimes over 400) in the German Empire in particular. This opens up numerous subject areas for collectors of medieval coins.
In the 13th century, gold returned to medieval coinage. In the Italian trading republics of Florence, Genoa and Venice, the denominations Floren, Genovino and Dukat (originally Zecchino) arose due to the need for larger means of payment. Together with larger silver coin types such as the groschen (French gros tournois), these denominations also made their way to Northern Europe in the Middle Ages, where they were imitated in the years that followed. Differentiated monetary systems emerged with a large variety of currencies, types and coins.
Immerse yourself in the time of Charlemagne (768-814), the Spanish Reconquista (711-1492), Friedrich Barbarossa (1152-1190) or the Hundred Years' War between England and France (1337-1453) with varied coin images from the Middle Ages!
- Berger, F.: Die mittelalterlichen Brakteaten im Kestner-Museum Hannover, 2 Bände, Hannover 1993 und 1996.
- Corpus Nummorum Austriacorum, Band I: Mittelalter, Wien 1994.
- Grierson, P.: Münzen des Mittelalters, München 1976.
- Kluge, B.: Numismatik des Mittelalters. Handbuch und Thesaurus Nummorum Medii Aevi, Berlin / Wien 2007.
- Spufford, P.: Money and its use in Medieval Europe, Cambridge 1989.
- Suhle, A.: Deutsche Münz- und Geldgeschichte von den Anfängen bis zum 15. Jahrhundert, Berlin 1975.
The catalogs listed can only provide an overview of the collection area of medieval coins. There is a large number of special catalogs for the interested collector for the individual areas, regions and cities.