In "Byzantine Coins" by Philip Grierson on page 16 I can read that around year 1000 the denomination for byzantine currency was as following: I am confused. 1 solidus costs 12 miliaresias/miliaresions or 288 folles. But 1 miliaresion costs 144 folles?! What am I doing wrong?
Looks like the math didn't get proofread. It should be 1 miliareson = 2 keratia = 24 folles; and 1 keratia = 12 folles.
So around year 1000 CE in the Byzantine Empire 1 Solidus was worth 12 miliaresias/miliaresions. And 1 miliaresion was worth 24 folles? 1 Solidus = 12 miliaresias/miliaresions 1 miliaresia = 24 folles Right? If somebody has figured it out, how should this table about the Comnenid monetary around year 1150 CE be interpreted?: Source: "Byzantine Coins" by Philip Grierson" 1 hyperpyron = 3 electrum trachea 1 electrum trachea = 16 billon trachea 1 billon trachea = 18 tetartera 1 tetartera = 2 half tetartera Have I interpreted it properly?
This a lot more confusing than these authors have made the problem, we are not sure how the old and new denominations worked together. Another point is trachea and tetartera did not co-exists except in the city of Constantinople, Tetartera were used in Western Greece and trachea was used in the east. The tetartera minted in Constantinople contained silver , not much 2-4 % , however, trachea had on a high of 8% , the tetartera minted regionally contained no silver. We now know due to letters mentioning the buying power of each they were tariffed differently, the one with silver was superior of course. I personally prefer Hendy's work on the Alexius coin reform, he was much more thorough. The DOC volumes have been posted, Volume IV has the details. Dumbarton Oakes has posted all 5 volumes making the work available to all for free. Here is the link to IV by Hendy. https://www.doaks.org/research/publ...collection-and-in-the-whittemore-collection-4
