MEDIAEVAL AND LATER EUROPEAN COINS With the fall of the Western empire, the coinage of the Byzan tine empire became the great influence in European currency. The Byzantine period in coinage may be considered to begin in the reign of Anastasius. The coins are in the three metals, but the silver is rare, and was probably struck in small quantities. At first the gold and silver are fine, but, towards the close of the empire, much alloyed. The gold coin is the solidus of Constantine (Pl. II.-19), with its half and its third (semissis and tremissis). The Byzantine solidus (besant) (P1. 11.-21) throughout the middle ages was the gold coin of European trade until the introduction of Italian gold in the 13th century. The chief silver coin was the miliarision, and a smaller coin, the siliqua or keration.
In 498 Anastasius introduced a new copper coinage, bear ing on the reverse, the following marks of value in place of a type: M, K, I and E, 4o nummi, 20, 10 and 5. These coins bear beneath the values the abbreviated name of the place of issue. Justinian I. added the regnal year in A.D. 538, his twelfth year; this is the first appearance of annual dating on European coinage. The money of this class shows extraordinary variations of weight, which reflect the state of the imperial finances. Under Basil I. the bronze money to all appearances was reformed, but the absence of marks of value makes the whole later his tory of the coinage in this metal very difficult. There was one curious change in the shape of the money. Early in the eleventh century the solidus begins to assume a cup-shaped form, and this subsequently became the shape of the whole coinage except the smaller bronze pieces. These coins are called nummi scyphati. The types, except when they refer simply to the sovereign, are of a religious and Christian character.
Christ appears in various forms on the coins; about 90o we find the Virgin; a few years later saints, St. George, St. Michael, St. Theodore, etc., begin to appear. A remarkable type was intro duced by Michael VIII. Palaeologus, who recovered Constanti nople from the Latins in 1261, and issued coins with the Virgin standing in the midst of the walls of the city. Another notable type is the adoration of the Magi. The principal inscriptions for a long period almost invariably relate to the sovereign, and give his name and titles. The secondary inscriptions of the earlier coins indicate the town at which the piece was struck, and in the case of the larger bronze pieces, the year of the Emperor's reign is given. From about the loth century there are generally two principal inscriptions, the one relating to the emperor and the other to the sacred figure of the reverse, in the form of a prayer. The secondary inscriptions at the same time are descriptive, and are merely abbreviations of the names or titles of the sacred personages beside the representations of whom they are placed. From the time of Alexius I. (Comnenus) the principal inscrip tions practically disappear, and descriptive ones alone are given. These are nearly always abbreviations, like the secondary ones of the earlier period. The language of the inscriptions was at first Latin with a partial use of Greek; about the time of Heraclius Greek began to take its place on a rude class of coins, probably local; in the 8th century Basileus and despotes replace Augustus; by the 9th century Greek inscriptions occur in the regular coinage; and by the time of Alexius I. Latin has wholly disappeared. The Greek inscriptions are remarkable for their orthography, which indicates the changes of the language. In the 11th century we have a few metrical inscriptions, a practice commoner in Asia than in Europe. From the time of Justinian (6th century) on wards the profile which has been usual for centuries practically disappears from the coinage, and is replaced by a facing bust.