Currency in seventh-century Syria as a historical source

Abstract

Relations between numismatists and historians have been confused by uncertainties about each other's role. As well as classifying coins numismatists should study them with a view to answering historical questions. This paper examines the ways in which coins convey information and illustrates the potential, as well as the problems, of using numismatics in answering some of the questions posed by the study of seventh century Syria. It also warns against the danger of pre-conceptions about the role of coinage and the status of different forms of evidence. Numismatists and historians The relationship of numismatics to other branches of historical study has always been a peculiar one. Trained historians have rarely found time or energy to master its details; and trained numismatists have been prone to content themselves with a slender historical equipment. C.G. Crump and C. Johnson (1902) Coins belong to a class of historical evidence whose exploitation, like papyri or cinema newsreels, requires a degree of expertise not usually available to the conventional historian and also one which, like photographs, are often studied and collected for their own sake. The numismatist's brief is to record their appearance and physical characteristics and then to try and identify the authority that issued them and the time and place when they were struck. Most would regard it as part of their job to comment on the cultural influences on the design, fabric and material of the coin or coin series, to estimate the size of its issue, and the scope of its circulation. Numismatists have developed techniques such as die study and frequency tables and, inevitably, a certain amount of jargon. An eye for style is also often required but the results of this are not always easy to communicate and, pace Michael Bates, take practice to acquire. 1 To go further and ask who used the coin and why, what does the knowledge we have gleaned about it tell us about the historical identity of the society which generated it, in particular its economy and fiscal system; and, since all history is about change, our theoretical understanding of the trends in the historical development of that society, is to move into the territory of the historian.