Figure 1 from Hammarberg,
Malmer & Zachrisson, plate 21Byzantine Coins
A Byzantine Coin Replica Done for the Barony of Nordskogen’s Silk Road Event
This all started when I was asked to do the site tokens for our Barony’s fall event, Silk Road, which is to have a Byzantine theme c. 1000. Although I have not yet been able to do struck coins, I wanted to do a coin replica for the event. My current skills lay in casting pewter so the coin I chose is a miliaresion from the reign of Basil II and Constantine VIII made c. 977-989. Miliresia were struck in silver and so I hoped to approximate the general look and feel of the coin in pewter. Figure 1 shows an example of this coin in fairly good condition.
Figure 1 from Hammarberg,
Malmer & Zachrisson, plate 21
The other reason I chose this particular coin is that I found documentation on considerable finds of it in Sweden, which seemed to me to fit right in with the Silk Road theme of the event. Specifically, over 200 specimens of Basil II coins struck in Constantinople have been found in Sweden. I thought this provided a good illustration of just how far the "Silk Road" extended during that time.
Most of the finds in Sweden containing the Basil II coins date from 980 to 1060, with some dated as late as 1140. Thus indicating periods of circulation up to 150 years. The largest portion of Byzantine coins found were on Gottland Island, with 460 miliresia found, compared with only 52 miliresia found on the Swedish mainland.
Almost 1/3 of the Byzantine coins found in Sweden are pierced, and many of those have riveted loops attached. This is a fairly high percentage compared to most other contemporary foreign coins (2% of Germanic coins and 4% of English coins found in Gottlandic hoards are pierced). Figure 2 shows an example of a coin that has been pierced and a loop attached.
Figure 2 from Hammarberg,
Malmer & Zachrisson, plate 11
These coins must have had some value and importance as demonstrated by the longevity of their circulation and use as pendants. They were also imitated as shown in the example in Figure 3 (it is unclear if this was meant to be an imitation or a counterfeit). These are all good examples of how far "Silk Road" was able to carry the Byzantine influence in Europe.
Figure
3 from Hammarberg, Malmer & Zachrisson, plate 34
Hammarberg, Malmer & Zachrisson, 1989, Byzantine Coins found in Sweden, London
Grierson, 1982, Byzantine Coins, London
For more information on Byzantine coins also see these websites:
www.byzantinecoins.com The intention of this web site is to educate and be educated by others about numismatic aspects of the Late Roman, Byzantine, Ostrogothic, Visigothic and other western contemporary gold of this period. This is a collection, the coins there are not for sale.
www.suc.org/exhibitions/byz_coins/ The Serbian Unity Congress Exhibition of Byzantine coins.
www.coin-universe.com/library/byzantine_coins/index.html Byzantine Numismatics on the Internet.
web.sol.no/mynter/faith.html
Age of Faith! Byzantium, Islamic Coins and Medieval European A.D 500-1400.
www.ms-medallions.com/Byzantine.html A commercial jewelry artist who uses Byzantine coins.
