New Book: The Thirty Pieces of Silver: Coin Relics in Medieval and Modern Europe

New Book Notice.

For the record, I haven't seen this book. I'm posting just to make sure Cointalk is perceived as a “serious forum.” If it helps, please know that I'm scowling even as I'm typing this.

Blurb: The Thirty Pieces of Silver: Coin Relics in Medieval and Modern Europe discusses many interconnected topics relating to the most perfidious monetary transaction in history: the betrayal of Jesus by Judas for thirty pieces of silver. According to medieval legend, these coins had existed since the time of Abraham’s father and had been used in many transactions recorded in the Bible. This book documents fifty specimens of coins which were venerated as holy relics　in medieval and modern churches and monasteries of Europe, from Valencia to Uppsala. Most of these relics are ancient Greek silver coins in origin mounted in precious reliquaries or used for the distribution of their wax imprints believed to have healing powers.

Drawing from a wide range of historical sources, from hagiography to numismatics, this book will appeal to students and academics researching Late Antique, Medieval, and Early Modern History, Theology, as well as all those interested in the function of relics throughout Christendom. The Thirty Pieces of Silver is a study that invites meditation on the highly symbolic and powerful role of money through coins which were the price, value, and measure of Christ and which, despite being the most abject objects, managed to become relics.

https://www.routledge.com/The-Thirt...FZCayYpv-2H5-wn1OaYPM18a2drLJaF-3XkW6oFMO0f-U


Table of Contents

List of Figures

List of Maps

Preface to the English edition

Preface

Acknowledgements

From the ritual uses of coins to their creation as relics

The coins of Saint Helena: objects of devotion before the invention of the Thirty Pieces of Silver

Judas, the Priests and the Thirty Pieces of Silver

The legend of the Thirty Pieces of Silver: from hagiographic tale to coin relics

The Thirty Pieces of Silver depicted as instruments of the Passion

The Thirty Pieces of Silver as relics: from the first specimens to their proliferation

The Thirty Pieces of Silver as Jewish shekels

Through the eyes of the Antiquarian and those of the Devout. Identification and debate since the Sixteenth Century

Conclusions: ancient and modern legends, coin relics and the nature of money

Appendix 1: Inventory of recorded specimens of the Thirty Pieces of Silver

Appendix 2: Collection of sources on the Thirty Pieces of Silver, by Francesco D'Angelo

Bibliography

Index

Author(s)

Biography: Lucia Travaini is Associate Professor of Numismatics, Milan State University, Italy. She has published extensively on coinage and money and has received prizes and honours including the 2012 Medal of the Royal Numismatic Society, London.



TO KEEP IT COINY, HERE’S MY VERY SERIOUS SHEKEL OF TYRE:

 

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I hesitated to like this, for fear of your thinking of me as a frivolous person. But I did so anyway, solely in order to express my scholarly approbation.

 

Your bona fides are duly noted.

 

Gavin, thanks for the heads up, looks like it could be a good read. Got it in my cart on Amazon. This looks serious enough. Now if you included a pic of a 1982 Lincoln cent with road rash & asked if it was an error coin, that would have blasted this thread to oblivion. Thank you for your discretion!

 

I am nothing if not restrained.

 

Thanks for the information on this new book.

Here's my type shekel, from Tyre, dated year 138 (12-13 AD). This coin, like all the other coins that I collect are done so on their historical merits, plus the fact that later shekels of this type are much scarcer than the earlier issues.

14.32 grams

 

I saw this posted on Medieval Updates. And then I saw the price. I may hold off for a while (although Travaini’s book on Norman coins is currently enroute to join my library…)

 

Regarding price, that’s academic publishing for you. I suspect university publishers make their money by selling to libraries. The author, of course, will be lucky to receive five complimentary copies. And maybe tenure.