The Coinage of the Visigoths of Spain, Leovigild to Achila II

Description

An epoch in the history of the coinage of Western Europe is marked by the introduction of a strictly autonomous and national currency in Visigothic Spain by King Leovigild (A.D. 568-586). His predecessors and contemporaries — and he himself until about the year 575 — had been content to issue anonymous imitations of the imperial coinage; but at the beginning of the fourth quarter of the 6th century this able and energetic ruler had achieved a degree of independence from Rome and Byzantium that finds numismatic expression in the striking of trientes bearing his own name. Rapidly, in the course of the final years of Leovigild's life, there evolve the main traits of an independent, national coinage of quite extraordinary interest, not only because of its character as the first really distinctive mediaeval coinage of the West but also because it continues virtually without interruption, and at a large number of mints widely dispersed over the Iberian peninsula, down through the long line of Leovigild's successors to the extinction of the kingdom by the Muslim invaders early in the 8th century. Foreword ix Bibliography, Collections and Key to Abbreviations 1 Biographical Notices of the Visigothic Kings of Spain from Leovigild to Achila II 21 Evolution and Distribution of Types 43 Key to Types of Busts 54 The Legends 67 The Mints 69 Narbonensis 76 Tarraconensis 79 Carthaginensis 92 Baetica 103 Lusitania 114 Gallaecia 125 Epigraphy 147 Notes on Minting Technique 149 Metrology 154 Hoards of Visigothic Coins 165 The Corpus 173 Note on Arrangement 174 Leovigild 175 Hermenegild 199 Reccared 201 Liuvall 235 Witteric 239 Gundemar 253 Sisebut 258 Suinthila 273 Sisenand 301 Iudila 321 Chintila 322 Tulga 330 Chindasvinth 335 Reccesvinth 351 Wamba 367 Ervig 375 Egica 387 Suniefred 405 Joint Rule of Egica & Wittiza 406 Wittiza 431 Roderic 442 AchilaII 444 Appendix: Fabrications and Forgeries 447 Location of Specimens Illustrated in the Plates 499 Indices