June 2, 2016

About the Book

“Early Byzantine Copper Coins” comprises a number of sections.

The Foreword(s) describe the circumstances of the formation of the collection and the fascination of this series.  There is a lengthy Introduction to the catalogue itself which includes some observations on collecting and studying Byzantine copper, a guide to understanding the catalogue entries, and a short bibliography.

There are 38 chapters which, in a largely conventional way, attribute the coins either by reign (there are two chapters each on the coinage of Justinian I and that of Maurice, and three on that of Heraclius) or by issuing authority. Much of the latter is necessarily speculative, encompassing military issues and emergency and necessity issues from the attempted recovery of parts of Western Europe under Justinian I and his immediate successors, the 20 year conflict with Persia (610-630), and the conquest of large parts of the Eastern Empire by the Arabs.

Two short chapters describe coins in the collection struck by the Germanic Kingdoms and by the Umayyad rulers of Bilad al-Sham and North Africa.

Chapters 39 to 42 inclusive incorporate a number of both published and unpublished papers.

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