12^th-13^th October 2017

Université de Caen Normandie

Organised by 

Jérémie Chameroy (RGZM) and Pierre-Marie Guihard (CRAHAM)

In the political and cultural fragmentation that defines the Late Roman West, the maintenance of Roman legacy until the establishment of the Germanic Kingdoms during the 5^th century is a central aspect of the transition from Late Antiquity to the Early Medieval period. The development of a monetary economy in the sub-Roman period was characterised by significant regional peculiarities. All too often, the interruption of a steady production of bronze coins at the end of the 4^th century in the Transalpine provinces—as well as the supposed hegemony of gold, proclaimed by ancient sources—has led scholars to conclude that the use of coinage declined rapidly from the beginning of the 5^th century. The role of silver coinage has remained largely overlooked, despite the fact that production of silver coins increased significantly from the mid-4^th century on. The use of silverware and diffusion of ingots across a broad socio-economic spectrum indicates that silver was a central component of the value and monetary systems. Yet even the most recent studies rarely consider the fact that silver continued to be struck until the middle of the 6^th century in the sub-Roman West.

This conference will focus particularly on the minting of silver coins and their use in the Northwest provinces of the Late Roman Empire and ensuing kingdoms. The unexpected diversity of silver coinages, and the measures taken locally to keep Roman silver coins in circulation, challenges the widespread image (in the De rebus bellicis, for example) of the exclusive role of gold coinage in Late Antique economy. The question arises whether the traditional Roman monetary economy (i.e. with bronze, silver and gold coins) really did exist in the Frankish and Burgundian kingdoms, and in sub-Roman Britain?  Closely related is the question of why the production of silver coins was halted in around the mid-6^th century: was this simply a matter of diminishing resources—a lack of silver metal—as is often claimed? Or did this mark a turning point in the monetary policy of the Western Kingdoms, when Theodebert 1 (534-548), after daring to print solidi in his own name, opened up the path to royal gold coinage in the West?