I have started this question several times and erased it. I feel rather embarrassed asking. I am a lifetime US coin collector that has become mesmerized with Byzantine anonymous folles. Perhaps my question is due to the fact that I am trying to quantify these in my mind relative to US coinage. I have tried to search on the web but still come up unsure. So I am posing it here because I do truly want to understand. Is follis a denomination? As in I have one follis (I have one dollar)? Is follis descriptive? As in I have a follis (I have a copper coin). So there it is. Go ahead and chuckle. Humor at my expense is acceptable and encouraged. My genuine apologies for the elementary question.
Here is a website from one of our dedicated posters, @Valentinian that should help you. Including answers to your question. I hope it helps & welcome to Byzantines, very historical and pretty fun to collect. I add one every so often. http://augustuscoins.com/ed/Byz/index.html
Here’s specifically the anonymous follis page of the previously linked and excellent resource: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/ByzAnon/
They are impressive coins and inject some "faith" into collecting, I'm sure for some folks. And they are downright historical. Here are two from my collection. Welcome, also, to the world of Byzantine collecting.
Got a Maurice Tiberius Half Follis. In decent condition and you can even see that they didn't clip some of the casting marks
Welcome to Byzantine collecting. It is a really interesting area - you're going to have fun. And just to show there is nothing to be embarrassed about, here is the world's worst Anonymous follis - I got it in a lot for about $0.33. Despite the catastrophic degree of wear, I still really like it:
Well, no, its actually a word, meaning 'purse' and refers to the bags that such coins were typically stored in when conducting large transactions. The truth is we dont know what these coins were called, so at some point (I am unaware of who 'coined' the term) someone invented a name for the coin. This happens with a lot of Roman coin denominations where scholars simply invent things to try to categorize what we can never really know (unless someone finds a dusty old book outlining such things, which is not going to happen). Also, 'Byzantine' is another misnomer. Its just a category really, made up to divide and compartmentalize history. It's still the Roman Empire, just a different time frame. Lastly, I would suggest that the 'Byzantine Follis' is really just a continuation of the sestertius.
Thanks for the explanation Ken. I wonder what an anonymous folle would buy back in the day. Also, the appearance of the coins when freshly struck must have been a bright copper, so quite impressive.
I found this discussion on FORVM giving prices and wages in bronze follises - it seems the big ones were spent individually, rather than bagged up and moved around in bulk: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=94625.0;wap2 This is earlier than the Anonymous period, but still interesting, I think.
By the 10th century in the Eastern Roman Empire , taxes to the state were paid in gold, however change from the state was paid in copper and silver. You did not pay your taxes with a follis, you had a money changer ( at a fee) change your lower denomination coins into gold and partial gold coinage to pay your taxes. The state never wanted or expected the copper coins back, they remained in circulation. In the reign of Alexius I a huge shortage brought copper back to the state to be reissued into a smaller ( Lighter) version of the coin, then in 1092 the coin reform occurred and even smaller coins were made ( Trachea and tetartera) It then gets more confusing because Trachea circulated in Asia Minor and tetartera in Greece. The only place all denominations comingled was Constantinople. Nothing yet has come to light on why these coins were separated but we do know it was by design of the government.
Yes but believe it or not I am on a cruise just leaving Rome headed for Israel so I do not have my library at hand . The source I used was found inexpensively and it was very interesting, a book about the Byzantine economy in the 10th, 11th Centuries. Ironically, after reading it, I found it as a source for Hendy's work in DOC. It will have to wait until I return home to give you the title. ( I just checked my old posts and I did not quote it.)
Here's another work I found: The Byzantine State Finances in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries (New York: East European Monographs, 1982) It was written by my former professor Warren Treadgold. https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/89/1/110/142963?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://www.worldcat.org/title/byza...n-the-eighth-and-ninth-centuries/oclc/9185032 According to what I can discern, the budget was estimated at 3.3 million nomismata in the mid eighth century. I took a Byzantine history course from Dr. Treadgold in 1989 when he was in residence at Berkeley. Hope this helps.
Pardon the delay in reply, I just got home from travel and had to look ay my library to answer this properly. Economic expansion in the Byzantine Empire 900-1200 by Alan Harvey 1989 On page 80 , the start of the chapter of Taxation and monetary circulation. " The state required gold for most of its expenses and was not interested very much in the lower-value denominations but these were much more useful for most commercial transactions. " I am paraphrasing the next paragraph. In cases that the Peasant producers did not have the necessary gold coinage to pay the tax they traded with the land owners or officials for the gold coinage , in either case they had to pay in an unfavorable rate of exchange.
