Sasanian Coins Who were the Sasanians? Prior to the rise of Islam in the seventh century, the power which most effectively matched the Byzantine Empire in the east was the Sasanian Persian Empire, based around the areas of modern Iran and Iraq, and centred on its capital city of Ktesiphon, near modern Baghdad. In 224 … Read more
British Coins British coinage in the Barber collection begins in the first century BC with coins produced in the Channel Islands, under the influence of Continental models. By the first century AD local rulers were producing coins with clear Roman influences, until Britain was largely brought under Roman rule. From the mid first century A.D. … Read more
Western Medieval Coins The Barber Institute collection of western medieval coins is small but contains some fine examples of Visigothic, Vandal, Merovingian and Burgundian coins, Lombard and Norman issues, a selection of British coins charting the development of British coinage from the pre-Roman to the modern period, and an important collection of coins of the … Read more
Miscellaneous Objects in the Coin Collection In addition to coins and seals, the Barber Institute Coin Room also houses a small selection of paranumismatica (things like or associated with coins). These provide useful teaching aids and in some cases supplement a historical understanding of coins by providing information about their creation and use in markets. … Read more
Arab-Byzantine Coins In AD 622 the Prophet Muhammad led a community from the city of Mecca in the Arabian Peninsula to the city of Medina. This date has come to form the beginning of the Muslim calendar as it represents the first founding of a community based on belief in Muhammad’s teachings and the revelation … Read more
Eastern Medieval Coins The Barber collection has significant strengths in eastern medieval coinage, including some unique examples of early Arab-Byzantine issues, a large selection of Sasanian coinage, extensive holdings of Turkmen coins and a range of Georgian and Armenian coinage. Elements of this collection were the focus of the 2013-14 numismatic exhibition Faith and Fortune: … Read more
Late Byzantine Coins In 1092, the Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118) reformed the Byzantine gold coinage to reverse the debasement which had been progressing through the eleventh century. This can be considered as the beginning of Late Byzantine coinage. The concave shape of the coins continued to mark the Late Byzantine coinage, as it had … Read more
Middle Byzantine Coins Around the year 830, the Emperor Theophilos (829-842) reformed the Byzantine coinage again, removing the now redundant denominational marks, which, while relevant in the sixth and early seventh centuries, had been reduced simply to the follis by the early ninth century. It was replaced with the epigraphic message: +θЄOFILĐ„ AVĘ•OVSĎ„Đ„ SV nICAS (Theophilos … Read more
Early Byzantine Coins Following the monetary reforms of Anastasius I (491-517) in 498, the Byzantine monetary system reached the height of its complexity in the sixth century. Several mints in cities across the Empire struck coins of gold, silver and base metal (copper alloys). The base metal coins in particular showed a great variety in design … Read more
Byzantine Coins The single largest section of the Barber Institute’s coin collection comprises its Byzantine coins. The most important collection of Byzantine coins in Europe, the Barber Institute houses examples of all periods of Byzantine monetary history and a number of rare specimens. Around 8,000 of the Barber’s 16,000 coins are Byzantine. The Byzantine Empire … Read more
Roman Republic Coins Rome began producing what may be considered proto-coins before the fourth century BC. These aes rude, as they are known, were essentially lumps of bronze or copper and are often found in hoards near sacred springs and fountains. The aes rude appear to have had no regulation of weight and are assumed … Read more
Aeneas | Coin from the Collection Aeneas was one of the legendary founders of Rome (as well as Romulus and Remus in a different legend), whose story is most famously immortalised in Virgil’s Aeneid. As well as a founder of Rome, Aeneas was believed a son of Venus-Aphrodite, a survivor of the Trojan war, the … Read more
Roman Coins The Barber Institute has a significant collection of Roman coins, including both republican and imperial issues, as well as a substantial number of Roman Egyptian tetradrachms. The Barber’s Roman coins total just over 5,000, out of the 16,000-strong collection. Roman coins are considered to continue until the reforms of Anastasius I (491-517) in 498, … Read more
Byzantine Seals In the Byzantine Empire seals were used, especially from the seventh century, though they had also been used in the Roman world, to verify that documents came from their official sender and to prove that they had not been opened or tampered with. They were an early form of document security and an … Read more
Hellenistic Coins The Barber Institute collection of Hellenistic coins is small but contains some fine specimens of early Greek coins, the earliest examples of ancient western coinage. It also contains some of the most beautiful and finely struck examples of Greek royal coinage. The reign of Alexander the Great provides a valuable case study of … Read more