Medieval
Silver pfennig of Frederick I
Altenburg
1152–1190
1954.203.154
The Medieval Department comprises about 55,000 coins of Latin Europe from the fall of the western Roman Empire down to the end of hammer-struck coinage during the course of the seventeenth century. Among the various post-Roman coinages, the Ostrogothic and Vandalic series are part of the Roman Department, while the pseudo-imperial coinages attributed to the Visigoths, Franks, Suevi, Burgundians, and Lombards are in the Medieval Department. The ending point for the Medieval Department uses the convention that hammer-struck coins belong in the Medieval Department, while milled coins are considered modern. However, there is much variation from country to country and mint to mint, and sometimes within a single mint some denominations were hammer-struck at the same time as others were milled. So, in general terms, we end the medieval period during the seventeenth century, at a date that serves as a convenient dividing line for a particular country, such as the English Civil War or the accession of Tsar Peter the Great. Strengths of the Medieval Department include Norman England and the English Civil War, Spain from Visigothic gold to late medieval Castilian billon, as well as France, Italy, and Sweden between the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries.