Interessant!
De onderliggende wetenschappelijke publicatie is vanuit het artikel gelinkt.
Ik heb het nog niet in detail doorgenomen, maar begon me toch al snel iets af te vragen ...
Citaten uit het wetenschappelijke artikel:
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pre-750 coin group
18 early pennies of types traditionally attributed to England
6 of types attributed to Frisia
4 coins of types attributed to eastern and northern Francia
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In sum, Byzantine silver seems to have served as the bullion for early coinages in regions bordering the North Sea for the entirety of the period c. AD 660–750. We make a case below that this silver was drawn from existing stocks: an argument with implications for understanding changing attitudes towards the use of precious metal, and the decision to mint.
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The first [important shift] is the use of Byzantine silver as bullion for the earliest North Sea silver coinages.
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Given the corresponding decline in the movement of goods from east to west in the Mediterranean (McCormick Reference McCormick2001: esp. 565–9), we consider it most likely that the Byzantine silver fuelling the earliest northern European medieval coins was already available in a massive, but finite, reserve of bullion that had been imported and accumulated, probably during the sixth and early seventh centuries.
Nu vraag ik me af: als die vroege Friese muntjes (sceattas) geslagen zijn met zilver uit al bestaande zilvervoorraden van Byzantijns zilver. Hoe hadden de Friese muntmeesters toegang tot die voorraden? De Friezen waren toen toch nog “onafhankelijk”? Hadden die onafhankelijk van Francia eigen zilvervoorraden uit dezelfde bron ter beschikking?
Groet,
Dagobert
Science: An orderly arrangement of what at the moment seem to be facts.