Visigothic coinage

Chindaswinth: tremissis
300px
+CN•SVINLVS PX, facing bust	+ISPALI PIVS, facing bust.
AV Tremissis (1.56 g, 6h). Hispalis (nowadays Seville) mint.

The Visigothic coinage was the basis of the economical system of the Visigoths in Gaul and Hispania, developed during the early Middle Ages (from the 5th to the beginning of the 8th century).

The most relevant coins are the solidus and the tremissis, both minted in gold.

Both the coins were minted in the last centuries of the Roman Empire, in Late Antiquity, and continued to be used by the emperors of the Byzantine Empire well into the Middle Ages.

The first coins were minted in Gaul, where Visigoths settled at the beginning of 5th century and has continued since the first half of the 6th century in the old Roman Hispania, where had moved the center of the Visigoth kingdom and power after the Battle of Vouillé (507). The victory, and shortly after, taking Toulouse, had allowed the Franks to extract the Visigoths of most of their Gallic areas.

The first coins, usually called pseudo-imperial, imitated those circulating in the western part of the Roman Empire and, later, those issued in the eastern part, reproducing the names of Roman emperors. After the year 580, the Visigoths began to strike entirely independent coins, named after the Visigoth kings. The issue of coins ended in the second decade of the 8th century, because of the Islamic conquest of the Iberian Peninsula, which ended the Visigoth kingdom.

Collocation of currencies in the catalog

The newer text about Visigothic coins is the book of Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn (2007), first volume of Medieval European Coinage (MEC). In sale catalogues we find an indication as "MEC 1, 171": MEC indicates the serie, "1" the first volume and "171" the 171st coin. Coins minted by the Visigoths are all in 1st volume and from number 166 to 277.

References

• Philip Grierson y Mark Blackburn, Medieval European Coinage (MEC) - Tome 1, The Early Middle Ages (5th–10th Centuries), Cambridge, 2007. pag. 39-54 ISBN 978-0-521-03177-6
• George Carpenter Miles, The Coinage of the Visigoths in Spain: Leovigild to Achila II, New York, American Numismatic Society, 1952
• J.P Kent, Un monnayage irrégulier du début du Ve siècle de notre ère, BCEN (Bulletin trimestriel du Cercle d'Études Numismatiques) 11 (1974), pag. 23-28