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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Finn235, post: 3200533, member: 98035&quot;]One interesting thing I have noticed is that anthropological &quot;catastrophes&quot; often seem to have affected most if not all of Eurasia at roughly the same time.</p><p><br /></p><p>In particular for this thread, is the general collapse seen during the transition from &quot;antiquity&quot; to the &quot;middle ages&quot; which saw general societal breakdown in much more than just Europe in the span of 450-550:</p><p><br /></p><p>- Rome falls to the barbarians in 476 and is dissolved and divvied up by local kingdoms after 480</p><p>- Byzantine Empire launches a disastrous campaign against the Vandals, and goes nearly bankrupt.</p><p>- Sassanian shah Peroz I is captured, released, captured again, released again, and then killed by the Hephthalites. Ctesiphon is sacked and the empire barely survives. Sassanian economy is in shambles.</p><p>- Alchon invasions into India break up the Gupta empire, much of the subcontinent enters a dark age</p><p>- China is locked in a bitter civil war that would not end until the Tang dynasty emerges victorious and unites most of China.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the turn of the 5th century, the Greek method of minting coins was totally lost, and the best Roman celatores worked only on Gold coins; these remain refined until the time of Justin/Justinian and then become cartoonish. Sassanian celatores lost their knack sometime in the 4th century, and after Peroz the coins are poorly made and cartoonish. Gupta coin coinage fizzles out following the breakup of that empire, and most coins made under or following the Alchon invasions are poorly made and artistically naive. Chinese coins weren&#039;t really impacted, I will admit.</p><p><br /></p><p>The result at any rate was a general breakdown in the artistic merit of nearly all coins under the European dark ages, and the Islamic takeover and subsequent ban on &quot;graven images&quot; although their calligraphy is undeniably beautiful.</p><p><br /></p><p>There are exceptions however, which is what I would love to see in this thread!</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Post your coins minted between 500-1500 that challenge the notion that medieval coins lack artistic skill and merit</i></p><p><i><br /></i></p><p>I&#039;ll start with a favorite of mine, a Nezak Hun Napki Malka billon drachm with arguably one of the best, most realistic portraits of the 7th-9th centuries.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]828212[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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