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Lombard coinage


The coinage of the Lombards refers to the autonomous productions of coins by the Lombards. It constitutes part of the coinage produced by Germanic peoples occupying the former territory of the Roman Empire during the Migration Period. All known Lombard coinage was produced after their settlement of Italy. The coinage originates from two distinct areas, in Langobardia Major between the last decades of the sixth century and 774, and in Langobardia Minor, in the duchy of Benevento, between approximately 680 and the end of the 9th century.

The earliest Lombard coins imitated contemporary Byzantine coinage, and coinage under the names of the Lombard kings was a later development. In the north the coinage consisted almost exclusively of tremisses, while solidi were also minted in Benevento. The southern coinage of Benevento and Salerno, although distinguished from that of the north by various stylistic and typological characteristics, also took inspiration from Byzantine models until new types bearing regal titles were issued by Cunipert towards the end of the 7th century.

After Lombard rule was superseded by that of the Franks in 774, Lombard-style coinage was produced for some time afterwards. In Langobardia Minor, the coinage was continued for around a hundred years.

While the coinage is largely in gold, silver coinage appears under the influence of the Franks in the end of the 8th century, alongside tremisses and solidi. Silver becomes the more prevalent metal only for the latest coinages, of the 9th century.

For the coinage minted by the Lombards, the most recent reference work is the first volume of Medieval European Coinage, by Philip Grierson and Mark Blackburn. In the catalogues one therefore often finds a reference of type "MEC 1, 274", where MEC inidicates the initials of this work, 1, the first volume, and 274, the index number of the coin in MEC. Coins of Lombard mints are catalogued between 274 and 331 in the first volume of MEC. The illustrations show coins of the collection of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.


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