Anastasius, Constantinople, (M) 40 nummi (size about 32 cm) Anastasius, (I) 10 nummi, (size same as the finger nail) In the 5th century the western part of Roman Empire fell, and it was also a transition where Anastasius introduced a completly new monetary system with 40-20-10-5-nummi-system in the surviving eastern part. I want to ask: Did the nummus-coins such of AE1, AE2 or AE4 circulate in the Eastern/Byzantine state just before the reign of Anastasius? Or was the monetary system completly collapsed? Did the AE1, AE2 or AE4 circulate at the same time even after Anastasius' monetary reform? Did an AE4-coin of Arcadius circulate alongside Anastasius' 40 nummi? Thank you for any help you can provide.
Tough question. If anybody can solve this one they should be as happy as Alexander "untying" the Gordian knot by slashing through it with his sword. Seriously though I assume that the AE2's probably were circulating up until the time of the reform of Anastasius, not sure about after, but there may have been a system where they were valued as a 20 nummi piece or thereabouts based on weight. AE4's I can't even guess at, though they probably were not worth much. The "haves" were buying everything in gold and the "have-nots" not so much. Anastasius' effort to ease inflation by introducing a valuable bronze series I am sure greatly relieved the public. He also left through his parsimony and wise accountant nature a vast surplus of gold to his successors, which eventually was gone after Justinian's extravagant spending.
As far as I am aware, there is no way to differentiate between pre-reform "Roman" monogram AE4s of Anastasius and post-reform "Byzantine" monogram nummi of his. Nummi are not common compared to the larger denominations, and owing to the generally abysmal condition of all AE4s from Theodosius II onward, they were probably allowed to remain in circulation for decades into the 6th century. I have read that the West had largely backslid to barter when the Roman economy imploded during and following the rule of Honorius and Valentinian III. The rarity of all coins from Johannes even until the early middle ages attest to a poorly monetized economy. About a year ago I bought a lot of late Roman AE4s from CNG that may have been a hoard. With two significant outliers, there were no coins earlier than Arcadius/Honorius, and none later than Justinian from his conquest of Africa. The bulk of the lot were monograms of Marcian and various Leo types, and there were a lot of Vandal coins as well. The aforementioned outliers were a tiny AE4-sized barbarous DIVO CLAVDIO and an AE4-sized Greek from the 1st/2nd century BC. If that was indeed a hoard, it attests to the longevity of the types in circulation, and also that dug coins would have been put back into circulation - this is well attested as the Vandals re-denominated first century Imperial bronzes.
This image from my 5th century page shows an Anastasius 1 nummus (0.46g) and a 40 nummi (17.29g) of his reform. The math is not exact but what we used to call "good enough for government work." Inflation being what it was, paying for small things had gotten to the point we have today with our coins. It took a small bag of coins to buy something from the 'Dollar Menu' so adding 10, 20 and 40 nummi coins made it convenient without turning to fiat coinage which would have been resisted by the populace. Question: what is the smallest purchase you made in the last year? I have hit the dollar menu at Taco Bell. Costco has a veding machine in the food court selling bottled water for 25 cents. Has anyone spent a solo dime lately?
Chinese restaurant in my town sells individual pieces of candy for under a dime each - IIRC, you can get a single small tootsie roll for 8 cents. My LCS has a junk box of world coins for a dime each... granted, most of the coins in there are cent coins! It would be interesting to see a breakdown of hoards that were deposited from ca. 420-550, although something tells me that the AE2 and AE3 didn't survive the economic calamities of the 5th century, just like the bronze denominations didn't survive the 250s.
I have a nice heavy AE2 of Arcadius but as far as I am aware the denomination was ceased shortly after his reign.
idk but my thoughts would be that it would be up to the sellers (& buyers too i reckon) of goods and services as to what was accepted as payment, coin or otherwise.. i have bags of pennies that are legal tender, but it would take quite a effort to pay for something with them.both on my part and whoever's lucky enough for me to pay
