The Silver Standard: Solving a medieval money mystery

Discover more here: https://www.cam.ac.uk/stories/medieval-money-mystery-solved

What have the Eastern Romans ever done for us?

Historians have theorised that bullion from the Byzantine Empire fuelled Europe’s revolutionary adoption of silver coins in the mid-seventh century. Now laser ablation analysis on surviving Anglo-Saxon silver 'pennies' has provided scientific proof that this was the case.

This broke England's reliance on gold and ushered in a new style of money that would last for a millennia.

The results also tracked political and economic changes within continental Europe, as the coins from Constantinople came to be replaced with silver from Charlemagne's mines.

The research was carried out by @oxforduniversity , @vrijeuniversiteitamsterdam , @earthscienceslibrary and The Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic (ASNC). The Department of Medals and Coins collection is in @FitzMuseum .

'This research was carried out under an ERC Starter Grant awarded to JK (Action number 802349) and an AHRC Leadership Fellowship (AH/S005498/1) awarded to RN' (Jane's project title is 'Silver and the Origins of the Viking Age'; my project title is 'Foundations of Gold and Silver').

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