FRENCH COIN COLLECTING ?
THE BARBARIC AGES
| After the collapse of the Roman empire, the History of France is the melting-pot of modern Western civilisation . The peoples who came from the East : Franks, Burgundi, Vandals, Alamans, Visigoths and Ostrogoths, are, along with the Celts and the Romans, at the origin of a billion inhabitants of our planet. The culture which is going to forge its way from the basis of the Celtic civilisation, the Roman legal system and with touches coming from central and Eastern Europe, influences a still greater number of earth-dwellers. |
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Example of Triens struck in Orleans around 630 by the mint-master, Angiulfus.(MONNAIES V 647 ) Sold at : 6 800 FR
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Men's ancestors are not only genetic, but also cultural, and one can perfectly well live in Senegal and be black-skinned while having Celts amongst one's ancestors. Coins to be found in France between 450 and 700 A.D., coins of the Visigoths, the Vandals and the Merovingians, are among the only traces of these ancestors, who left neither buildings nor literature. Of a difficult style, very badly studied, of a great number and variety, these coins were struck in thousands of different mints : the insecurity and disorganisation were such that each group of peasants grouped itself around a fortified villa. This villa was to become the seigneur's castle in feudal ages. |
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Example of Triens struck at Vienne en Val in the Loiret region, around 600 A.D. by the mint-master Teudecendus. (MONNAIES V 648) Sold at : 7 510 FRF |
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These coins are very rare, often made of gold and rarely to be found at less than a thousand francs (two hundred dollars). The exceptional and historically important examples, which museums fight over, can go up to a hundred thousand francs (twenty thousand dollars) . The book to read is 'Medieval European Coinage' by Philip Grierson and M. Blackburn. There is no specialised reference collection in existence but the collection of the national French library (Bibliothèque Nationale de France) is very substantial. |
