Počátky českého mincovnictví / The Begi – Lukas Jiří (2022)

This book examines the beginnings of coin minting in Bohemia, when the production of coins as a basic means of payment in domestic and international trade represented one of the fundamental attributes of statehood in the Early Middle Ages. The search for the origins of local coinage resembles a detective story with many clues but little direct evidence. In the absence of written sources, coin finds remain the principal source of knowledge about both the beginnings of Bohemian coinage and the economic processes taking place across the wider area of early medieval Central Europe. They show that, even before local coins were minted, foreign currency was increasingly used in trade in Bohemia: in the ninth century, deniers minted in the workshops of the Carolingian Empire, and from the beginning of the tenth century, coins from Bavarian mints. These finds document Bohemia’s gradual integration into the broader economic sphere of Western Europe. Jiří Lukas and Jan Videman offer a new view of the use and function of minted coins in Bohemia during the ninth and tenth centuries and answer questions concerning the introduction of domestic coinage on the basis of verifiable evidence. The book also revises several established theories and presents a new picture of the origins of Bohemian coinage. It includes a detailed list and description of early medieval coin hoards concealed in Central and Northern Europe during the 950s–970s, together with a catalogue of Bohemian deniers of the older Bavarian-Swabian, or nine-point, type minted in Prague during the 970s.