Did Roman Coins Circulate after the Fall of the Empire?

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You asked it, and I bring you the answer. Did Roman coins keep circuating after the fall of the mighty Roman Empire? Lets find out!

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ClassicalNumismatics

For me a ancient coins collector from China, it is really fascinating to think about that my coins have survived 2000 years and finally come to me. Romans who once minted and used them would have never thought that their money will travel to "Serica", a far east country so far away from Roma.

ytzhou

One could argue that, spiritually, Rome never really fell. If anything, its influence only expanded. We still write and speak using Latin based languages, buildings are still being built around the world that take styles from Greek and Roman architecture, art is still being made in the style of Greek and Roman art, we still use Roman numerals, the Catholic Church, a Roman era institution, is still around and thriving. Not to mention the coins we have today, particularly in the US, UK, Canada, etc. still use a lot of the same design choices as Roman coins. Hell, we even see Latin itself still being used in a number of fields and in coinage and such. Many Roman symbols, such as the fasces and Lady Liberty, is still used as symbols of countries today. The US (and other countries) even takes a lot of ideas for governance from the Romans themselves. I could go on and on. Regardless, the influence of the Roman Empire can still be very much seen in our day to day lives despite it having been about 1500 years since the fall of the Western Roman Empire and about 600 years since the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire.

stevekovoc

Miserably sad to think of how many Roman coins were melted down over the centuries and are now just plain elemental components of gold bars in a Swiss vault being held for some billionaire or other.

DieLuftwaffel

I read somewhere that Constantinian bronzes were still circulating as small change in the south of France as late as the time of Napoleon III.

tavuzzipust

13:50 that's got to be a medieval instance of "not my job, boss" 💀

cecumyj

11:20, good point, I never thought about that... of course those Renaissance collections we hear about today were those of the nobilty and the very rich, but some middle class scholar may have also collected, mostly clerics... in fact, I recall a "hoard" of Roman coins found in Mexico in aracheological context... it is supposed to have been the collection of some 17th century Spanish numismatist-friar who eventually hid it in face of some danger... I utterly understand him, he could not afford to come over here to the Americas without his collection, I would have done the same thing!

Numischannel

If memory serves me right, some Roman Siliqua were shaved down for use as early Anglo-Saxon coins prior to King Alfred unifying the kingdoms.

robertkennedy

Recently watched a video from a U Toronto professor specializing in coins used in the British North American colonies. One of the sources he quoted, which was one of Canadas earliest numismatist focusing on the plethora of coins circulating around the colony. He stated that roman and even at least one Ancient Greek coin circulated in the colonies. They were extremely rare but did circulate. It is crazy to think about the longevity of these coins and how they managed to cross a whole ocean and be used a millennia and a half or more after their mintage

TaterTT

Seeing 5th century Vandals using a coin of Vespasian makes me wonder if anyone ever looked at it and decided to just keep it as some sort of lucky coin. I wonder how they would feel if they saw us collecting their currency, or if they did the same during their days to some extent

Chaika

Here -> 8:21, It's amazing how much better, more realistic, and more detailed ancient Roman coins look than English coins from the 900s AD.
The details on the hair and beard especially. Roman coins can rival the 20th-century coins in terms of detail. It's remarkable. Coins from the 900s AD look crude and primitive.
The face of the emperor looks very realistic and detailed. The king in the upper row looks like some ghoulish monster. The decline was real. Europe really went into the dark ages for 100s of years. Even the technology of making coins went in more crude, primitive designs due to a lack of technology.

oldi

Great episode. I've often wondered when a Roman coin in my collection was last used to make a purchase. Who made the purchase & what did they buy??? I agree with you the connection we get collecting ancient coins with people of the past is a bonus to one's collection.

SpectreEelman

Loved this episode. Extremely informative. Prior to this, I'd assumed the next era just melted most of them.

johnlee

When I was a kid we lived in Ethiopia - in the markets, you would often see old Maria Theresa Thalers being used. Farmers, especially, didn't trust paper notes or modern coins. The value of the Thalers was known & universally accepted. It was the same when we'd go to Kenya. Heck, when I was fighting in Kuwait, nearly every family we met had bags of Thalers as their savings. In mediaeval times, too - "currency exchanges" were just a matter of weighing coins (hundreds of paintings show it). So Roman coins would've circulated until modern times. In NYC British money was used as much as US money up until... shoot, sorry, but I know it was sometime between the 1850s-1870s. The "Shilling Side" of the street was where workers and artisans lived, the "Dollar Side" was where the wealthy did.

SgtRocko

Always fantastic inviews into the past through numismatics : thank you very much for your work !
Greatings from a Frenchman (passionate ancient coin collector, by the way) living since 1999 in Rome (more complicated actually), now 70 m away from Aurelian walls...

wollin