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Heraclian countermarks on Byzantine copper coins in seventh-century Syria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2016

Wolfgang Schulze ,
Ingrid Schulze  and
Wolfgang Leimenstoll
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Abstract

Countermarks with the monogram of the Emperor Heraclius (610–41) are found in Syria on Byzantine copper coins. After discussing the typology and the reading of the countermarks we reject the older proposals that the countermarks served as a kind of revaluation in connection with the Heraclian monetary reforms. Statistical analyses of 173 specimens and their provenances, as well as comparisons with contemporary finds, have led us to the conclusion that the countermarks were applied between c. 633 and 636 in Palestine 1. They were presumably produced during the struggles with the invading Arabs. Circulating copper coins (old and new — folles, three-quarter and half folles) became revalued by countermarking because of the serious lack of cash at that time in Syria.

Type
Research Article
Information
Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 1 , 2006 , pp. 1 - 27
Copyright
Copyright © The Centre for Byzantine, Ottoman and Modern Greek Studies, University of Birmingham 2006 

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