I would also assume that if took a hundred of these, some would begin to blur into one another in terms of size.
How do you use these in real life if they represent different denominations in use at the same time???
SC
No you don't sound like a heretic but many believe the coin
had involuntary value but
still split the
denomination As a
tetarteron and its half. So it the value was involuntary what is the point of a half version?
I can tell the difference in hand between the
denominations , I have
had literally 1,0000s of them in my
hands. At the FUN
coin show I got paid for the first time for attributing a handful of both
denominations for a dealer, he
had about 50 tetartera and I got $20.00 for 10
min of
work. I have worked with this
denomination for so long that I was even able to give
Sear numbers for them. Most of the coins in my
collection are the very best I have ever seen, not the normal over circulated ones that are commonly found.
So to follow the modern
history of the
denomination it was first divided in Hendy's book Coinage and
Money printed in 1969, in it he takes the
tetarteron and another coin he calls its half, however he states that he felt there were different fractions of the
denomination. The book was a huge undertaking and simply split them by large and small.
Average weight vs
average weight. Certain examples were classified as
tetarteron and others half
tetarteron ( Today some papers refer to them as semi
tetarteron.) I am traveling so I do not have my books here but I believe the
tetarteron was 4.4gm and the half just over two. In 1999
DOC IV he
still leaves the
tetarteron and its half but adds a 3rd
tetarteron that was exclusively minted in
Constantinople, it contained silver depending on the ruler between 2-4% does not sound like much but a billion
trachy averaged 8%.
Then came the CLBC
work it skipped most of DOC's finding but brought forth a theory that the die sizes were consistent for the
denomination and again grouped them by die sizes and
weight. I tried to prove the theory for tetartera but
ran into a few problems, the coin dies for each
type remained true for the first two rulers after the coin reform but the
weights did not. I found multiple coins that
had weights from 1gm to 6gm but the same die size.
The
Constantinople issues did not vary much, they remained consistent but the other
mint coins became the issue.
Now the
tetarteron was the most used coin in
Greece during the 12th century but is rarely found in
Asia Minor, the
trachy is found commonly there but not in
Greece. The only place in the 12th century they comingled was in
Constantinople, not only the tetartera issues there but the less valuable other
mint coins.
Both the
tetarteron and the
trachy were created for everyday transactions , they were also used as change from tax payments that
had to be made in gold, In the early years of the 1092 coin reform it must have been extremely confusing paying taxes in the old
money and getting the new currency's as change, perhaps that is a reason for the
weight variation.
By the time you get to Manuel, Andronicus and Isaac II you
still have
weight variations but you have three dies sizes perhaps that was the fractional currency
Hendy thought existed. .
BTW the purchasing power of the coins cane to light on two different translated letters, the copper
tetarteron could buy a small loaf of bread, the
Constantinople version could buy 12 mackerels. Both letters were written in the late 12th century.
Sadly, it is no longer helpful using the
weights provided by
DOC because shortly after its publication imitation tetartera were identified from the 13th century, after the fall of the city the coin was recreated because the population was so use to dealing with them, the imitation issues are of Alexius and Manuel coins with the simplest designs, the are normally underweight and have basic errors in legends and attire. The result is all data is from earlier publications and coin
auction data is not helpfully because they might be an imitation.
Trying to figure this out with coins alone is beyond difficult. Its like someone trying to figure out USA coinage 800 years from now, Very little is written, rarely do major receipts contain change amounts. Just look at The USA dollar coin variations in the last 70 years, or the half dollar or a dime versus a
nickel. At least we put a
denomination amount of those
In the world of coin collecting this is not that important unless of course you have been collecting them so long you want to figure this mess out or see if the evidence proves they were just involuntary value, tokens without value.