The writing in the coin: a reflection of political and religious power in the medieval West

Abstract

Since the creation of the currency in the Western world, in the Aegean Sea area in the 7th century BC, this small piece of metal became the best instrument of commercial exchange, but at the same time it became a powerful means of propaganda political and religious, always tightly controlled by the issuing power of the currency, which wanted to capture specific and very clear messages in the monetary legends that accompanied its iconography, leaving nothing to chance. This political and religious message reached its peak in medieval times, in the three great Mediterranean areas, Western Europe, the Byzantine Empire and Islam. Each area had its peculiarities, but these messages predominated in all, which we will study in this work for the first of them, Western Europe, seeing some examples that show the importance of these monetary messages during the thousand years that have elapsed since the fall of the Roman West Empire until the beginning of the 16th century. We will see how the political power in its different echelons strengthened a message of ownership and exclusivity, destined both to the subjects of that power, as well as to their enemies or neighbors, since in these centuries the currency is undoubtedly the object that travels the most, both in speed and distance, and everyone who comes to have it in their hands must identify them to know their true economic value and therefore is also obliged to understand the meaning of their types and legends.