13 June 1998: Indian Coinage Study Day

The Mughals and their Contemporaries

Morning Session (chaired by Jan Lingen)

10.35. Najaf Haider: The technology of coin production in the Mughal Empire

11.00. Coffee

11.45. Nich Rhodes: Altered dies in North-East India

12.00. Discussion on Monetisatoin and the use of coinage during the Mughal Period, led by Sanjay Garg.

12.45. Lunch

Afternoon Session (chaired by Stan Goron)

2.00. Sanjay Garg: The 200 muhrs of Shah Jahan revisited

2.30. Jan Lingen: The dating of the reign of Muhammad Shah and Nadir Shah's invasion of India

3.15. Nurussaba Garg: A forgotten hoard of Mughal gold coins from Kasur

3.45. Ken Wiggins: Hollow Authority -- the use of the Emperor's name on coins of the new Princely States

4.15. Summing-up by Stan Goron.

4.30. Departure

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March 12-13, 1999: Gods, Graves and Numismatics

Interpreting Early Medieval Coin Finds of Northern Europe in Sacred Contexts
Third Cambridge Numismatic Symposium



Introduction

Archaeologists and numismatists of the Early Medieval period (AD 600-1200) are invited to attend the Third Cambridge Numismatic Symposium, 12-13 March 1999, for an investigation of coins in sacred contexts. Single coins and hoards found in graves, within churches, and in other sacred contexts (eg: wells, foundations, hearths, boundaries, etc) form the main types of evidence to be explored and evaluated at this conference.

Social messages are embedded in such depositions, and the very material which numismatists may reject for analysing economy and coin circulation, and which archaeologists may see mainly as a dating tool, actually forms a unique category of 'archaeo-numismatic' evidence.

A sacred context is here defined as a location which has been specially chosen for a symbolic or ritual reason, and a coin deposit occurs in such a context as a result of thoughtful and deliberate placement, not by chance alone. Interpreting a coin find which is essentially a gift or offering involves more than identifying coin types, dates, mints and so forth, and its economic significance is not straightforward. It may not even be relevant. Instead, this premeditated deposition conveys a meaningful social statement. The message and the action behind it are in some ways more important than the material itself, providing insight into social customs, beliefs and behaviour.

Coins in sacred contexts are thus seen to have lost one aspect of their intended economic function while taking on a new symbolic role. Alternatively, it may be said that a layer of social meaning has been added to their utilitarian function. But how do we extract this kind of meaning from small metal disks?

It is the purpose of this symposium to shed light on the social practices reflected in depositions of this kind, while also appreciating alternative (non-economic) uses of coins. Awareness will be raised of the prejudices and potential of material which has been subjected to a 'social filter', and we aim to find better ways to access and utilise this kind of information in our work.


Programme


Friday 12 March 1999

Chairman: Prof. Philip Grierson

10.00 Coffee and Registration
10.30 Welcome

10.40 Aleksander Bursche, Coins in Sacred Contexts in the Barbaricum of Later Antiquity
11.20 Arent Pol, Sacred finds in Early Medieval Germany
12.00 Mark Blackburn, Coins in Anglo-Saxon graves

12.40 Lunch

Chairman: Dr Catherine Hills

2.00 Keld Grinder-Hansen, The ritual use of coins in graves in Viking-Age and Medieval Denmark
2.40 Tuukka Talvio, Grave finds in the Eastern Baltic

3.20 Tea

3.40 Martin Biddle, Coins in Anglo-Scandinavian burials
4.20 Lucia Travaini, Saints and sinners: Coins in Italian graves
5.00 Discussion 1: To what extent are coins in graves different from other grave goods?
5.50 Break up

7.00 Dinner at Peterhouse (optional, tickets c.£20 in advance)


Saturday 13 March 1999

Chairman: Prof. James Graham-Campbell

9.30 Märit Gaimster, Coin pendants and gold bracteates: An amuletic perspective of Early Medieval coins
10.10 Torun Zachrisson, Divine gold and silver: In search of a division between hoards and sacrifices within the precious metal deposits of Eastern Middle Sweden AD 800-1200

10.50 Coffee

11.20 Kristin Bornholdt, Consecrated contexts: A new perspective on coin finds from the Isle of Man
11.50 Discussion 2: How do we recognise a sacred context?

12.40 Lunch

Chairman: Dr Peter Spufford

2.00 Hanne Wagnkilde, Coins in grave and hoard contexts in 11th-century Bornholm
2.40 Svein Gullbekk, Coin finds from churches in Early Medieval Scandinivia

3.20 Tea

3.40 Kenneth Jonsson, Late medieval cumulative finds in churches – increase or decrease?
4.20 Summing up and dispersal


Lectures will held in the Auditorium, Gonville & Caius College

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28 Feb - 1 March 1997: Local Coins, Foreign Coins

Italy and Europe 10th to 15th Centuries: Numismatic and Documentary Evidence

Lucia Travaina: Welcome and introduction to the symposium

Peter Spufford: Local coins, foreign coins in Europe: an overview

Andrea Saccocci: Billon and bullion: local and foreign coins in Northern Italy (11th-15th centuries)

Angelo Finetti: Boni e mali piczoli: local and foreign denari in central Italy (12th-15th centuries)

Alan Stahl: The Circulation of Medieval Venetian Coinages

Lucia Travaini: Papienses, provesini, turonenses,...: foreign coins in south Italy and Sicily (11th-15th centuries)

Marc Bompaire: Definition de la "monnaie étrangère", monnaie prohibée et monnaie tolerée, en France aux XIIIe-XVe siècles

Jens Christian Moesgaard: Foreign coins in Lancastrian France (1417-1450)

Barrie Cook: Local and foreign coins in medieval England

Ulrich Klein: Notes on the circulation of Italian coins in South-Western Germany during the Middle Ages

Jorgen Steen Jensen: Local and foreign coins in Denmark (11th-16th centuries)

Peter Spufford - Lucia Travaini: Conclusion

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1 March 1996: Coinage in Norman Italy: Numismatics and History

Philip Grierson: Before the Normans: Byzantine and Lombard coinage

Lucia Travaini: The Normans and their coinage

Donald Matthew: Numismatic evidence and the historian

Jonathan Shepard: Byzantine diplomacy and money

Graham Loud: Wealth and coinage in the age of Robert Guiscard

Jeremy Johns: Populus trilinguis: coinage as a medium for royal policy