changes in coinage and monetary circulation in Europe were as radical as the political developments they accompanied during the eighth and ninth centuries. The period saw the virtual extinction of gold coinages and their replacement with silver in almost all areas of Europe. The new silver denomination, the penny, introduced in Francia and England towards the end of the seventh century, subsequently took on a broader, thinner appearance and in this form it became the standard currency unit of medieval Europe, marking the final break with the monetary system of late antiquity. In the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon kingdoms the currency developed a fiscal role in addition to its important commercial function, accompanied by tightening royal control, although by the end of the ninth century in Francia the first signs of feudal usurpation of minting rights can be detected. Elsewhere, the impact of the Muslim conquests of Spain and Sicily were to change their entire monetary systems. In Germany, the use of coin became established in the Rhineland and Bavaria, but to other parts it scarcely penetrated. Further east and north, in eastern and central Europe and in Scandinavia, silver dirhems from the Near East began to arrive in enormous quantities. Yet at just this time there are signs of a possible shortage of silver for currency in western Europe resulting in widespread debasement and perhaps a contraction in the amount of coinage in circulation.