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| nummus | |
|---|---|
| Name | Nummus |
| Country | Byzantine Empire; Roman Empire; Hellenistic kingdoms |
| Denomination | Small bronze or copper coin |
| Value | Variable (unitary small change) |
| Years of minting | Roman Republic to Byzantine Empire |
| Composition | Copper, bronze, billon in later issues |
| Obverse | Emperors, magistrates, deities |
| Reverse | Military standards, monograms, cross potent |
nummus
The nummus is a term applied by modern scholars and ancient writers to a small bronze or copper coin used across Hellenistic, Roman, and Byzantine contexts. It appears in literary sources, administrative documents, and numismatic catalogues as a unit of small change that varied in weight and value across regions and reigns. Surviving coins, hoards, and metallurgical studies link the nummus to specific issues produced at mints in cities and imperial workshops across the Mediterranean and Near East.
The word derives from Latin and Greek linguistic traditions recorded in sources such as the Corpus Iuris Civilis, the Lex Salica, and Byzantine legal texts, where it denotes a coin or small monetary unit. Authors like Cassius Dio, Procopius, Zosimus, Theophanes the Confessor and jurists in the Justinian I era employ the term in fiscal contexts, while medieval chronicles from Bede to Anna Komnene reflect later semantic shifts. Modern numismatists working in institutions such as the British Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the American Numismatic Society and the Deutsche Bundesbank use "nummus" in cataloguing and classification, often alongside mints like Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Syria.
In Hellenistic numismatics, small bronze issues from mints in Ptolemaic Egypt, Seleucid Syria, and city-states such as Athens, Rhodes, and Pergamon served similar transactional roles as later nummi. Hellenistic hoards studied by scholars at the University of Oxford, the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, and the École française d'Athènes reveal local iconography—deities like Zeus, Athena, and Isis—parallel to Roman provincial bronzes. Excavations at sites including Pompeii, Ephesus, Alexandria, and Delphi recovered small bronze issues that inform debates in journals like the Journal of Roman Archaeology and the Numismatic Chronicle about denomination equivalence.
Under the Roman Principate and later the Dominate, minting reforms produced low-value bronze coinage struck at imperial mints such as Lugdunum, Ravenna, and Trier. Emperors from Augustus to Diocletian, Constantine I, and Justinian I oversaw changes in weight and alloy. The late Roman folles and the early Byzantine nummi show transitions reflected in hoards associated with events like the Crisis of the Third Century and the Constantinian reforms. Byzantine iconography under dynasties such as the Heraclian dynasty, Isaurian dynasty, and Macedonian dynasty introduced Christian symbols—crosses and Christograms—seen on nummular bronzes, as examined by researchers at Dumbarton Oaks and the Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.
Regional mints in provinces from Egypt to Bithynia, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, and Cappadocia issued local types and imitations of imperial small change. Barbarian and neighboring polities—such as the Sassanian Empire, Visigoths, Ostrogoths, and Lombards—produced coinage inspired by Roman designs, creating hybrid types studied in collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Hermitage Museum. Crusader states like Antioch and economic centers such as Acre show circulation patterns combining Western silver and Eastern bronze, documented by numismatists collaborating with the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The role of small change in market transactions emerges in records linked to marketplaces and institutions: the Curia, diocesan fiscal accounts, and monastic ledgers from Mount Athos to Cluny Abbey. Coin debasement episodes during reigns of Gallienus, Valentinian I, and Heraclius influenced price lists, military pay, and tax remittances, with parallels in merchant correspondence preserved in archives like the Chigi collection and papyri unearthed at Oxyrhynchus. Modern economic historians at the London School of Economics and the University of Cambridge model these phenomena using metallurgical data and price edicts such as those attributed to Diocletian.
Key hoards—discovered at sites including Saxon Hoard, Hoxne Hoard, Seuso Treasure, Mildenhall Treasure, Kerch, Nafplio and numerous finds across Bulgaria and Turkey—contain substantial assemblages of small bronzes. Fieldwork by teams from University College London, the University of Heidelberg, and the Princeton University archaeological expeditions provide stratigraphic contexts that help date issues and circulation. Metallurgical analysis using facilities at the Natural History Museum, London and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History sheds light on alloy composition and production techniques.
Numismatists categorize nummi based on typology, mintmarks, die-links, and hoard provenance, using catalogues such as the Roman Provincial Coinage series, issues recorded by the British Museum Catalogue, and the Sylloge Nummorum Graecorum. Collectors and institutions—American Numismatic Society, Royal Numismatic Society, and private dealers operating in markets like London and Zurich—apply grading standards and conservation methods. Auction houses including Sotheby's, Christie's, and specialist firms publish sales records that inform provenance research and scholarly catalogues.