Byzantine Coin Finds Database, a Powerful Research Tool?

NOMISMATA is the first geo- and chronoreferenced database of Byzantine coin finds. A database like this did not exist before, so we created one at the University of Trieste. What is it for? Without a database of this kind, anyone studying the circulation of Byzantine coinage had to rely solely on books or articles, analyzing coin finds one publication at a time. With NOMISMATA, instead, researchers can view all Byzantine coin finds together – across both geographic space and historical time – while controlling their reliability. In this way, scholars can enlarge their research on production and circulation of Byzantine currency in the long run, build new models, identify correlations, conduct analyses, define more precisely the areas of particular mints and explore trends and patterns. This should make possible a new approach and – hopefully – allow for new discoveries. So, NOMISMATA is essentially a research tool. It also provides users with access to all the sources it draws from, making NOMISMATA a repository of scholarly literature on Byzantine coin finds as well.