Nummus - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Nummus plural nummi is a Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

term meaning "coin

Coin

A coin is a piece of hard material that is standardized in weight, is produced in large quantities in order to facilitate trade, and primarily can be used as a legal tender token for commerce in the designated country, region, or territory....

", but used technically for a range of low-value copper coins issued by the Roman

Roman Empire

The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....

and Byzantine

Byzantine Empire

The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...

empires during late Antiquity

Late Antiquity

Late Antiquity is a periodization used by historians to describe the time of transition from Classical Antiquity to the Middle Ages, in both mainland Europe and the Mediterranean world. Precise boundaries for the period are a matter of debate, but noted historian of the period Peter Brown proposed...

.

In ca. 294, during the Tetrarchy

Tetrarchy

The term Tetrarchy describes any system of government where power is divided among four individuals, but usually refers to the tetrarchy instituted by Roman Emperor Diocletian in 293, marking the end of the Crisis of the Third Century and the recovery of the Roman Empire...

, a new large bronze coin of ca. 10 gram

Gram

The gram is a metric system unit of mass....

s weight and 30 mm diameter appeared. Its official name was apparently nummus, but it is usually known among numismatists as the follis
Follis
The follis was a type of coin in the Roman and Byzantine traditions.-Roman coin:The Roman follis was a large bronze coin introduced in about 294...

. The term nummus is thus usually applied solely to the 5th–7th century Byzantine issues. These were small, badly struck coins, weighing less than 1 gram, forming the lowest denomination of the Byzantine coinage

Byzantine coinage

Byzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins...

. They were valued officially at ¹⁄_7,200 of the gold solidus
Solidus (coin)
The solidus was originally a gold coin issued by the Romans, and a weight measure for gold more generally, corresponding to 4.5 grams.-Roman and Byzantine coinage:...

but more usually rated to ¹⁄_6,000 or ¹⁄_12,000. The nummus usually featured the profile of the reigning emperor on the obverse and the imperial monogram on the reverse, although some coins of Justinian I

Justinian I

Justinian I ; , ; 483– 13 or 14 November 565), commonly known as Justinian the Great, was Byzantine Emperor from 527 to 565. During his reign, Justinian sought to revive the Empire's greatness and reconquer the lost western half of the classical Roman Empire.One of the most important figures of...

(r. 527–565) display its numerical value by the Greek numeral "A" instead.

In 498, Emperor Anastasius I

Anastasius I (emperor)

Anastasius I was Byzantine Emperor from 491 to 518. During his reign the Roman eastern frontier underwent extensive re-fortification, including the construction of Dara, a stronghold intended to counter the Persian fortress of Nisibis....

(r. 491–518) reformed the coinage by introducing multiples of the nummus, with denominations of 40 nummi, also known as a follis
Follis
The follis was a type of coin in the Roman and Byzantine traditions.-Roman coin:The Roman follis was a large bronze coin introduced in about 294...

, 20 nummi (semifollis), 10 nummi (decanummium, δεκανούμμιον). These were also marked with Greek numerals

Greek numerals

Greek numerals are a system of representing numbers using letters of the Greek alphabet. They are also known by the names Ionian numerals, Milesian numerals , Alexandrian numerals, or alphabetic numerals...

representing their value: "M" for the follis, "K" for the semifollis and "I" for the decanummium. On the other hand, it appears that issue of the simple nummus was discontinued. In 513, the weights of these coins were doubled, the pentanummium (πεντανούμμιον, 5-nummi coin marked with "E") introduced, and the minting of single nummi resumed.

In 538/539, Emperor Justinian I introduced further changes to the 40-nummi follis, raising its weight to 25 grams. It was reduced again to 22.5 grams in 541/542, and further reductions followed until the century's end. At this time a new, 30-nummi coin (marked with "Λ

Lambda

Lambda is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is related to the Phoenician letter Lamed . Letters in other alphabets that stemmed from lambda include the Roman L and the Cyrillic letter El...

" or "XXX") was introduced, but the single follis had ceased to be struck at Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

. It survived in the Exarchate of Carthage well into the 7th century however. During the 7th century, the successive military and financial crises, led to increased reduction in the weight and a marked deterioration of the quality of bronze coinage: by the time of Constans II (r. 641–668), a follis weighed only 3 grams. Consequently, the denominations lower than the semifollis were practically unmintable and abandoned. Thereafter the term nummus remained in use as a notional unit for ¹⁄_6,000 of the solidus, and in colloquial usage for "small change".

See also