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Message:: [QUOTE="BenSi, post: 3187790, member: 95174"]Your right Ken but it is not the translations that are the problem, it the fragmented information. My post above was based on Michael  Hendy's work from the Dumbarton Oakes catalog ( For proposed coin values) and an article from Pagona Papadapoulou  faculty from the Aristotle university of Thessaloniki( for the information on the translated letters for the purchasing power of the tetarteron). From that I worked out the value of the bread to the Hyperpyron.  As you said many factors are left out such as did the price fluctuate due to crops?Quantity discounts? The price for the bread was in Thessaloniki,versus the price in  Constantinople. Too many of the little details are left out to be accurate. I think it would be very difficult  for someone 900 plus years in the future to figure out how our small change worked, like the Eastern Roman empire most important documents that would be translated would be regarding large transactions not so much the small ones. I have been reading a book that has mentioned land prices and tax rates  in the 11th century, that info is much easier to come by but it is all in gold coin.[/QUOTE]