Renovatio Monetae

Renovatio Monetae is a Latin expression that means re-coinage, where old coins were declared invalid and exchanged for new ones. Re-coinage generated important revenues for the medieval coin issuers and could occur as often as twice a year. An exchange fee was charged to tax trade and inhabitants. A common theme in this book is that medieval bracteates, thin uni-faced coins, are strongly connected to such re-coinage in the High Middle Ages. The bracteates had several characteristics that made them suitable as short-lived coinage, e.g., low production costs and a large diameter, which made it possible to vary the main design of the coins. Roger Svensson works as Associate Professor in economics at the Research Institute of Industrial Economics (IFN) in Stockholm. He shows that the system with short-lived coinage and bracteates was dominant in currency areas with a low monetization. Such areas could be found in the central, northern and eastern parts of medieval Europe. The book is partly a summary of the existing research literature about bracteates, but the author also contributes with own analysis in several respects – specifically when creating an economic theory about short-lived coins and medieval bracteates. 2013.