Coin weighers and dealers in the Early Byzantine city: The case of Justiniana Prima

Abstract

Up to the present day, the study of coin quality control in tax payment and moneyexchange in Late Antiquity has not relied much on archaeological data. This is sobecause coin scales and weights have rarely been found in cities, other settlementsand fortresses, or in coin hoards and graves.On the other hand, the decades-long excavations at Caričin Grad (Justiniana Prima) have yielded numerous scales and glass and bronze weights. These finds speak bothfor the importance of coin quality control in the sixth century and for the unstablevalue of the solidi and their fractions used in exchange in northern Illyricum.