Misplaced Pages

Aspron

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
(Redirected from Aspron trachy)
Aspron minted by Manuel I of Trebizond

The aspron (Greek: ἄσπρον), from Latin asper, was a late Byzantine name for silver or silver-alloy coins.

The Latin word asper originally meant "rough", but had gradually acquired the connotation of "fresh" or "freshly minted", i.e. not worn smooth by use, and, especially when referring to silver, "white", by the imperial period. It acquired a technical meaning in the 12th century, when the Byzantines began to refer to the billon trachy coin, which was issued in a blanched state, as an aspron. The same name was also sometimes applied to the contemporary electrum trachy as well.

The name re-appears in the 14th–15th centuries as a generic name for silver coinage, such as the Byzantine doukatopoulon or the Turkish akçe. The 15th century account books of the Venetian merchant-banker Giacomo Badoer lists several cities and governments that coined aspers, which included Trebizond, Caffa, Simisso (or Samsun), Tana, and Rhodes.

References

  1. ^ Grierson 1991, p. 211.
  2. Cecile Morrison, "Coin Usage and Exchange Rates in Badoer's Libro dei Conti", Dumbarton Oaks Papers, 55 (2001), pp. 217-245

Sources

Currencies of the Byzantine Empire
First period
(498 – ca. 700)
Gold
Solidus
Semissis
Tremissis
Silver
Hexagram (from 615)
Copper
Follis
Half-follis
Decanummium
Pentanummium
Nummus
Second period
(ca. 700 – 1092)
Gold
Solidus or Nomisma (later Histamenon)
Tetarteron (from 960s)
Silver
Miliaresion (from 720)
Copper
Follis
Third period
(1092 – ca. 1300)
Gold
Hyperpyron
Electrum
Nomisma trachy aspron (Trikephalon/Manouelaton)
Billon
aspron trachy (Stamenon)
Copper
Tetarteron
Half-tetarteron
Fourth period
(ca. 1300 – 1350s)
Gold
Hyperpyron
Silver
Basilikon
Billon
Tournesion (Politikon)
Copper
Trachy
Assarion
Fifth period
(1367 – 1453)
Silver
Stavraton
Half-stavraton
Doukatopoulon (Aspron)
Copper
Tournesion
Follaro
Related topics
Categories: