Along with the photofile I have initiated a survey on
ebay concerning VI-th century coins. Its aim is to determine the intensity of
money circulation within the century (Anastasius-Phocas actually) taking into consideration the number of coins, inflation ( meaning the bronze curency value in gold). Of course regnal period will be taken into consideration, as one may surely observe a large quantity of coins issued by Justinian (38 years reign) compared to
Tiberius II (4 years reign).
Basically I will write down once at ten days(considering 10 days as the longest period for an
auction, not to count the same coin twice) all the coins from the VIth century emperors with
denomination, regnal year,
mint and
officina. Then I will calculate the total number of nummia involved (follis=40, dekanummia=10 etc) which I will devide by the regnal period.
The result will be a statistical figure for the only purpose to be compared with other emperor's result.
For example I started on the 15th of January and I
had 559 nummia for Justinian which devided by 38(regnal years) was 14.7. For
Maurice I
had 240 devided by 20, so 12 the result. This means a higher circulation during the reign of Justinian. Of course this is only the beginning and it doesn't really mean anything for now, but it will in 6 months or one year. As I mentioned the final results will be subject to an analisys of inflation. Without it everything is useless. The fact that one emperor struck more coins than the other does not necessarily mean a higher economic level if the value of
money was very low. It must be constantly compared to the gold
solidus. At first 420 folles were exchanged for a
solidus but later the value of the
follis decreased so theoretically at some point 100 folles were less valuable than 50 folles, when used for
buying merchandise, that's why a lot of calculations must be done to reach a correct conclusion in this matter.
Any help/suggestions/opinions will be much appreciated.
