Foreign coin circulated in 11th, 12th century Russia
stonej
Mike Marotta
> http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=...
Actually, would it not have been something of a surprise if foreign
coins did _not_ circulate? Despite the mystery of their invention,
within a generation, coins replaced wheat, cows, and 100-lb slabs of
bronze as the preferred medium of commerce. Always traded by weight
(and later, fineness, as well -- all coins originally pure until Rome
of the 200s AD), coins went wherever there were things to be bought
from saffron to pickled herring. People will even pay for more of what
they already have if it is in anyway different.
England, Sweden, Russia and Latvia are the sources of some of the
largest hoards of coins from Islamic lands, evidence of the extensive
trade networks that have long tied the northern Christians to the
Muslims of the south. Computers would not exist but for the invention
of the algorithm, named for Al-Khwarizmi – Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn
Musa – the court librarian of Baghdad. However you approach the study
of Muslim civilizations and their numismatics, you will find the 1500-
year span on three continents to be a rich source of learning and
reward.
-- "Internet Connections" ANA Numismatist, February 2007.
-- and that is just one thread ...
Before Arabic numerals and double-entry bookkeeping became standard,
accounting was done with tallyboards and Nurnberg tokens. We still
call the British treasury the "exchequer" because of the checkerboard
accounting of the middle ages. After they were no longer needed, those
Nuremberg tokens found their way to England where they were accepted
in markets and fairs as farthings in a land with no bronze coins.
-- here's another --
Here in America, it is a footnote that most people ignore but foreign
coins were legal tender until 1857. Spanish coins (Mexico, Bolivia,
etc.) appeared on the notes of banks in Michigan, Alabama,
Massachusetts, New York, etc., because people recognized those. They
may have seen little (if any) federal money -- and at this time, only
finally, were the last of many merchants' books no longer kept in
Pounds-Shillings-Pence, rather than decimal dollars.
-- lastly --
Here is a picture from Feb 2008 of 10 Million Zimbabwe dollars against
USD10...
http://www.nancarrow-webdesk.com/warehouse/storage2/2008-w07/img.125414_t.jpg
but the fact is that the US$10 note was indeed in Harare because money
travels. That's one of its jobs.
Mike M.
Michael E. Marotta
"Value for value."
note.boy
"stonej" <sto...@mail.lib.msu.edu> wrote in message
news:1f1f5e75-91a9-40fe...@k36g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.numismaster.com/ta/numis/Article.jsp?ad=article&ArticleId=5972
Up until about the 1880's French bronze coins similar in size to the
halfpenny and penny circulated at those values in the UK, a situation that
the UK government was not happy about.
Many of these French coins were imported and countermarked as advertising
pieces, most famously by Pears Soap, as it was illegal to deface UK coins.
Billy