Unusual byzantine denominations outside their cities? Or not?

I hope to get an answer from someone deep in byzantine coinage, but I have no much expectation of receiving an absolute answer.

In 2017 a hoard of byzantine copper coins was found in Israel:

Source: https://coinweek.com/ancient-coins/hoard-bronze-byzantine-coins-found-israel/

It is clearly suggesting that coins minted in Constantinople (CON) obviously circulated wide and ended in Israel/Palestine.

That big “M” is a Greek denomination for 40 nummi, and that is a common denomination just as with 20, 10 and 5 nummi.


But in Thessalonika and in Egypt there are some weird denomination respectively 16 nummi and 12 nummi.

Here we have one from Thessalonika (Greece) and 16 nummi:




Here from Alexandria (Egypt) and 12 nummi:



Now logically most of us think that those coins with such an unsual denomination like 16 or 12 nummi must have been circulated only in their respective mintcity and never outside. Because it is unsual denomination.

I want to ask the following question:

Have we ever excavated hoard(s) of 16 nummi coins OUTSIDE Thessalonika, and 12 nummi coins outside Alexandria?

Have we ever found a bag of 16 nummi coins or 12 nummi coins in let say Israel, Italy or Tunesia?

If we have then it would clearly suggest that such coins indeed did circulate outside their mintcity.

As mentioned in the beginning I have no much expectation of receiving an absolute answer for such a specific question, but maybe someone here knows the answer.

Have a nice day.

 

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Interesting coins and have never heard of either of those denominations.

 

I don't know if anyone's done an analysis of the distribution of 12 and 16 nummi coins, but for research purposes, I can refer you to the ANS Digital Library's Bibliography of Byzantine Coin Hoards.

 

I would think that if they were to be found outside of their relative areas of influence (Alexandria and Thessalonica), They would perhaps need to be re-valued? I could totally be off in my thinking though - I've only had one caffeinated beverage this morning.

Here is a Justin II 12 nummi from Alexandria. It is 15mm and 4.69g.


Here is a Justin II and Sophia Half Follis (20 nummi) from Thessalonica. It is 18.8mm and weighs 5.45g


Lastly, here is a Justinian I 16 Nummi from Thessalonica. It is 25.2mm and weighs 8.34g

 

We can refer to some precise info from at least 2 excavations in North Jordan.
In the macellum of Gerasa (Jerash), they have found 27 dodecanummia of Alexandria, from Justinian I to Heraclius. In Khirbet es-Samra, another excavation 30 km from Jerash, they found 6 dodecanummia of the same 6th-early 7th c. period.
Enough to say that in North Jordan these 12 nummi coins of Alexandria did circulate. In the Macellum of Gerasa there was also 1 axumite coin, obviously a isolate loss, while 27 dodecanummia are not isolated losses, it was clearly a coinage in circulation.
The question now is: in which layers were these dodecanummia found? They are very small and have the same module and weight as Umayyad fulus (bronze coins). They could have been used in the Umayyad period (7th-8th c.) for the equivalent of a fals.

 

I’m convinced that the 12 nummi coins circulated where a “base unit” was a 3-value coin, and they were used in groups of four. Similar for the 16 coins would have had base units of 4.

this is sort of like how 4x 25 cent coins equals one dollar. I guess groups of four are easy to deal with