A numerical taxonomy of Merovingian coins

Abstract

The coins of the Merovingian rulers of Gaul are basically derived from those of their Roman predecessors. 1 The portrait of the emperor became conventionalized and the reverse images were simplified. At first the Roman legends were copied (and miscopied), but in the course of the sixth century these were replaced by names of mints and of minters. There appear on Merovingian coins the names of hundreds of towns from throughout the kingdom and thousands of minters, only one of whom can be confidently identiffed. Very few of the coins bear the name of a ruler or any other indication of the date of their production. With no basis for an a priori chronology, the best strategy for analysis is to group them by geography and stylistic criteria and to establish a chronological order for the groupings. In a study of about 350 coins presumed to be from the region of Metz (including the areas of Trier, Toul and Verdun), groupings were based on iconographic and stylistic criteria. 2 A chronology was then derived from the names of a few rulers appearing on several of the coins, the appearance of the coins in hoards, and the percentage of gold in the coins (their Roman prototypes are gold; the Carolingian successors are silver). The criteria for assignment of coins to groups were few and to some extent arbitrary. One group was defined by a particular reverse type and another by a style of portraiture, while other groups were distinguished by a complex set of characteristics. This study attempts to devise a more sys