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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Pellinore, post: 2310062, member: 74834&quot;]Here&#039;s a bunch of Sicilian coins from the 12th and 13th century. The largest measures only 15 mm, the light brown follaro of William II (1166-1189). They were all cheap, the price of a few beers each, and the (tiny) gold ones the price of a single dinner in a restaurant with one Michelin star (with a good bottle of wine, naturally).</p><p><br /></p><p>I really love Norman Sicilian coins because they are on the raw edge between Islam and Christianity. In the twelfth century many coins show Arabic writing and signs that were Christian, but a bit mitigated. For instance, the 9 mm coin with a T (tau) on both sides, a billon kharruba dating from about 1100 AD, is thought to be a coin that was acceptable to both Christians (tau = an ancient form of a cross) and the Arabs (a cross that was a bit low-profile), a people living in Sicily but just conquered by Robert Guiscard and his brother Roger I of Hauteville, end of the 11th century. </p><p>Coins are meant for trade, and the trade was with muslims, too.</p><p>See Philip Grierson: <i>Medieval European Coinage: Volume 14, South Italy, Sicily, Sardinia </i>(1998), p. 87-88.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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