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The ''solidus'' (
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
'solid';  ''solidi'') or nomisma ( grc-gre, νόμισμα, ''nómisma'',  'coin') was a highly pure
gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia, Canadian Maple Leaf, and American Buf ...
issued in the Late Roman Empire and
Byzantine Empire The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
. Constantine introduced the coin, and its weight of about 4.5 grams remained relatively constant for seven centuries. In the Byzantine Empire, the solidus or nomisma remained a highly pure gold coin until the 11th century, when several Byzantine emperors began to strike the coin with less and less gold. The nomisma was finally abolished by
Alexius I Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...
in 1092, who replaced it with the hyperpyron, which also came to be known as a "
bezant In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (Old French ''besant'', from Latin ''bizantius aureus'') was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman ''solidus''. The word itself comes from th ...
". The Byzantine solidus also inspired the originally slightly less pure dinar issued by the Muslim Caliphate. In Western Europe, the solidus was the main gold coin of commerce from late Roman times to Pepin the Short's currency reform, which introduced the silver-based pound/ shilling/ penny system. In Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, the solidus also functioned as a unit of weight equal to Roman pound (approximately 4.5 grams).


Solidus as a Roman coin

The solidus was introduced by Constantine the Great in and was composed of relatively solid gold. Constantine's solidus was struck at a rate of 72 to a
Roman pound The ancient Roman units of measurement were primarily founded on the Hellenic system, which in turn was influenced by the Egyptian system and the Mesopotamian system. The Roman units were comparatively consistent and well documented. Length T ...
(of about 326.6 g) of gold; each coin weighed 24 Greco-Roman carats (189 mg each),Porteous 1969 or about 4.5 grams of gold per coin. By this time, the solidus was worth 275,000 increasingly debased denarii, each denarius containing just 5% silver (or one twentieth) of the amount it had three and a half centuries beforehand. With the exception of the early issues of Constantine the Great and the odd usurpers, the solidus today is a much more affordable gold Roman coin to collect, compared to the older aureus, especially those of Valens, Honorius and later Byzantine issues.


In the Byzantine period

The solidus was maintained essentially unaltered in weight, dimensions and purity, until the 10th century. During the 6th and 7th centuries "lightweight" solidi of 20, 22 or 23 ''siliquae'' (one ''siliqua'' was 1/24 of a solidus) were struck along with the standard weight issues, presumably for trade purposes or to pay tribute. The lightweight solidi were especially popular in the West, and many of these lightweight coins have been found in Europe, Russia and Georgia. The lightweight solidi were distinguished by different markings on the coin, usually in the
exergue A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order to ...
for the 20 and 22 ''siliquae'' coins, and by stars in the field for the 23 ''siliquae'' coins. Despite the Eastern half of the Roman Empire being predominantly
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
speaking, the words on the coinage continued to be struck in Latin well into the eighth century. The letters on the coinage began to lose their
Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later period ...
look under the emperor Heraclius, but until the reign of
Constantine VI Constantine VI ( gr, Κωνσταντῖνος, ''Kōnstantinos''; 14 January 771 – before 805Cutler & Hollingsworth (1991), pp. 501–502) was Byzantine emperor from 780 to 797. The only child of Emperor Leo IV, Constantine was named co-emp ...
the coins continued to feature Latin text, being finally replaced with Greek script in the early years of the ninth century. In theory, the solidus was struck from pure gold, but because of the limits of refining techniques, in practice - the coins were often about 23k fine (95.8% gold). In the Greek-speaking world during the Roman period, and then in the Byzantine economy, the solidus was known as the νόμισμα (''nomisma'', plural ''nomismata''). In the 10th century Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas (963–969) introduced a new lightweight gold coin called the ''tetarteron nomisma'' that circulated alongside the solidus, and from that time the solidus (''nomisma'') became known as the ἱστάμενον νόμισμα (''histamenon nomisma''), in the Greek speaking world. Initially it was difficult to distinguish the two coins, as they had the same design, dimensions and purity, and there were no marks of value to distinguish the denominations. The only difference was the weight. The '' tetarteron nomisma'' was a lighter coin, about 4.05 grams, reminiscent of the lightweight solidi of the 6th and 7th centuries, but the ''histamenon nomisma'' maintained the traditional weight of 4.5 grams. To eliminate confusion between the two, from the reign of Basil II (975–1025) the solidus (''histamenon nomisma'') was struck as a thinner coin with a larger diameter but with the same weight and purity as before. From the middle of the 11th century, the larger diameter ''histamenon nomisma'' was struck on a concave (cup-shaped) flan, while the smaller ''tetarteron nomisma'' continued to be struck on a smaller flat flan.


Debasement, decline, and elimination of the solidus

Former money changer Michael IV the Paphlagonian (1034–41) assumed the throne of Byzantium in 1034 and began the slow process of debasing both the ''tetarteron nomisma'' and the ''histamenon nomisma''. The debasement was gradual at first, but then accelerated rapidly: about 21 carats (87.5% pure) during the reign of Constantine IX Monomachos (1042–1055), 18 carats (75%) under Constantine X Doukas (1059–1067), and 16 carats (66.7%) under Romanos IV Diogenes (1068–1071). After Romanos lost the disastrous Battle of Manzikert to the Turks, the empire's ability to generate revenue deteriorated further and the solidus continued to be debased. The coin's purity reached 14 carats (58%) under Michael VII Doukas (1071–1078), 8 carats (33%) under Nikephoros III Botaneiates (1078–1081) and 0 to 8 carats during the first eleven years of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (1081–1118). Alexios reformed the coinage in 1092 and eliminated the solidus (''histamenon nomisma'') altogether. In its place he introduced a new gold coin called the '' hyperpyron nomisma'' at about 20.5k fine (85%). The weight, dimensions and purity of the ''hyperpyron nomisma'' remained stable until the Sack of Constantinople by the Crusaders in 1204. After that time the exiled Empire of Nicea continued to strike a debased ''hyperpyron nomisma''.
Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...
recaptured Constantinople in 1261, and under him the restored Byzantine Empire continued to strike the debased ''hyperpyron nomisma'' until the joint reign of
John V Palaiologos John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Ἰωάννης Παλαιολόγος, ''Iōánnēs Palaiológos''; 18 June 1332 – 16 February 1391) was Byzantine emperor from 1341 to 1391, with interruptions. Biography John V was the son of E ...
and John VI (1347–1354), who struck the final Byzantine gold coins. After that time the ''hyperpyron nomisma'' continued as a unit of account, but it was no longer struck in gold.


Mints across the empire

From the 4th to the 11th centuries, ''solidi'' were minted mostly at the Constantinople mint. However, certain branch mints were active producers of solidi. In the Roman Empire during the 4th century, Trier,
Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...
,
Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
, and Ravenna were the main producers of gold coins in the West, while Constantinople, Antioch,
Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; el, Θεσσαλονίκη, , also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece, with over one million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, and the capital of the geographic region of ...
, and Nicomedia struck gold coins in the East. The Germanic invasions of the early fifth century led to the closure of many provincial mints, and by 410 the only mints that struck gold solidi were Rome, Ravenna, Constantinople, and Thessalonica. The Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 saw the end of official Roman coinage in the West, though Germanic successor kingdoms such as the
Ostrogothic Kingdom The Ostrogothic Kingdom, officially the Kingdom of Italy (), existed under the control of the Germanic Ostrogoths in Italy and neighbouring areas from 493 to 553. In Italy, the Ostrogoths led by Theodoric the Great killed and replaced Odoacer, ...
and the Franks continued to strike imitative solidi, with the portrait and title of the emperor in Constantinople. Justinian I's reconquests in the Western Empire reopened several mints, which began to strike gold solidi. His reconquest of the Vandal Kingdom reopened the mint at Carthage, where a great number of solidi were struck. In the early seventh century, the mint at Carthage began to strike small "globular" solidi, about half the size of a normal solidus but much thicker. These "globular" solidi were only struck in Carthage, and the mint continued to produce great quantities of solidi until its conquest by the Arabs in 698. Justinian's conquests also allowed for imperial mints to begin coining solidi in Italy, with the mints at Ravenna and Rome once again striking official Roman coins. Under Justinian, Antioch in Syria started to mint solidi again after a 150-year hiatus, and a few solidi were struck at
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
in Egypt, though these are very rare today. The mint at Syracuse grew beginning in the mid-seventh century during the reign of Constans II, who briefly moved the empire's capital to the city. During the 8th and 9th centuries, the Syracuse mint produced a large number of ''solidi'' that failed to meet the specifications of the coins produced by the imperial mint in Constantinople. The Syracuse ''solidi'' were generally lighter (about 3.8g) and only 19k fine (79% pure). Although imperial law forbade merchants from exporting solidi outside imperial territory, this was very loosely enforced, and many solidi have been found in Russia, Central Europe, Georgia, and Syria. In particular, it seems as if the light-weight solidi were meant for foreign trade. In the 7th century they became a desirable circulating currency in Arabian countries. Since the solidi circulating outside the empire were not used to pay taxes to the emperor, they did not get reminted, and the soft pure-gold coins quickly became worn. Through the end of the 7th century, Arabian copies of solidi –
dinars The dinar () is the principal currency unit in several countries near the Mediterranean Sea, and its historical use is even more widespread. The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the gold dinar and the silver dirham, the main coin o ...
minted by the caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, who had access to supplies of gold from the upper Nile – began to circulate in areas outside the Byzantine Empire. These corresponded in weight to only , but matched the weight of the lightweight (20 ''siliquae'') solidi that were circulating in those areas. The two coins circulated together in these areas for a time.The solidus was not marked with any face value throughout its seven-century manufacture and circulation. Fractions of the solidus known as ''semissis'' (half-solidi) and ''tremissis'' (one-third solidi) were also produced. The fractional gold coins were especially popular in the West where the economy had been significantly simplified and few purchases required a denomination so large as the solidus. The word ''soldier'' is ultimately derived from ''solidus'', referring to the solidi with which soldiers were paid.


Impact on world currencies

In medieval Europe, where the only coin in circulation was the silver penny (''denier''), the solidus was used as a unit of account equal to 12 ''deniers''. Variations on the word ''solidus'' in the local language gave rise to a number of currency units:


France

In the French language, which evolved directly from common or vulgar Latin over the centuries, ''solidus'' changed to ''soldus'', then ''solt'', then ''sol'' and finally ''sou''. No gold ''solidi'' were minted after the Carolingians adopted the silver standard; thenceforward the ''solidus'' or ''sol'' was a paper accounting unit equivalent to one-twentieth of a pound (''librum'' or ''livre'') of silver and divided into 12 ''denarii'' or ''deniers''. The monetary unit disappeared with decimalisation and introduction of the
franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...
during the
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in coup of 18 Brumaire, November 1799. Many of its ...
( 1st republic) in 1795, but the coin of 5 centimes, the twentieth part of the franc, inherited the name "sou" as a nickname: in the first half of the 20th century, a coin or an amount of 5 francs was still often referred to as ''cent sous''. To this day, in French around the world, ''solde'' means the
balance Balance or balancing may refer to: Common meanings * Balance (ability) in biomechanics * Balance (accounting) * Balance or weighing scale * Balance as in equality or equilibrium Arts and entertainment Film * ''Balance'' (1983 film), a Bulgaria ...
of an account or invoice, or sales (''seasonal rebate''), and is the specific name of a soldier's
salary A salary is a form of periodic payment from an employer to an employee, which may be specified in an employment contract. It is contrasted with piece wages, where each job, hour or other unit is paid separately, rather than on a periodic basis. F ...
. Although the ''sou'' as a coin disappeared more than two centuries ago, the word is still used as a synonym of money in many French phrases: ''avoir des sous'' is being rich, ''être sans un sou'' is being poor (same construction as "penniless").


Quebec

In Canadian French, and are commonly employed terms for the Canadian cent. and are also regularly used. The European French is not used in Quebec. In Canada one hundredth of a
dollar Dollar is the name of more than 20 currencies. They include the Australian dollar, Brunei dollar, Canadian dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Jamaican dollar, Liberian dollar, Namibian dollar, New Taiwan dollar, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, ...
is officially known as a cent (pronounced /sɛnt/) in both English and French. However, in practice, a feminine form of , (pronounced /sɛn/) has mostly replaced the official "" outside bilingual areas. Spoken use of the official masculine form of cent is uncommon in francophone-only areas of Canada. Quarter dollar coins in colloquial Quebec French are sometimes called (thirty cents), because of a series of changes in terminology, currencies, and exchange rates. After the British conquest of
Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
in 1759, French coins gradually fell out of use, and became a nickname for the halfpenny, which was similar in value to the French . Spanish pesos and U.S. dollars were also in use, and from 1841 to 1858 the exchange rate was fixed at $4 = £1 (or 400¢ = 240d). This made 25¢ equal to 15d, or 30 halfpence i.e. . In 1858, pounds, shillings, and pence were abolished in favour of dollars and cents, and the nickname began to be used for the 1¢ coin, but the term for a 25¢ coin has endured. In the vernacular Quebec French and are also frequently used to refer to money in general, especially small amounts.


Italy

The name of the medieval Italian silver (plural ), coined since the 11th century, was derived from . This word is still in common use today in Italy in its plural with the same meaning as the English equivalent "money". The word , like the French mentioned above, means the balance of an account or invoice; the German is a loan word with the same meaning. It also means "seasonal rebate".


Switzerland

In the Italian speaking regions, the word "soldo", on top of its modern uses in Italian, is still currently used in its archaic meaning: the pay soldiers receive, this is also true in French speaking Switzerland, Swiss soldiers will receive "il soldo" - "la solde". In Italian the verb Soldare (Assoldare) means hiring, more often soldiers (Soldati) or mercenaries, deriving exactly from the use of the word as described above.


Spain and Peru, Portugal and Brazil

As with ''soldier'' in English, the Spanish and Portuguese equivalent is ''soldado'' (almost the same
pronunciation Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken. This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct pronunciation") or simply the way a particular ...
). The name of the medieval
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
''sueldo'' and Portuguese ''soldo'' (which also means salary) were derived from ''solidus''; the term ''sweldo'' in most Philippine languages ( Tagalog, Cebuano, etc.) is derived from the Spanish. The Spanish and Portuguese word ''saldo'', like the French ''solde'', means the balance of an account or invoice. It is also used in some other languages, such as German and Afrikaans. Some have suggested that the Peruvian unit of currency, the ''sol'', is derived from ''solidus'', but the standard unit of Peruvian currency was the ''real'' until 1863. Throughout the Spanish world the dollar equivalent was 8 reales ("pieces of eight"), which circulated legally in the United States until 1857. In the US, the colloquial expression "two bits" for a quarter dollar, and the stock market currency ''real'' last used for accounting, traded in of a U.S. dollar until 2001, still echoes the legal usage in the US in the 19th century. The Peruvian ''sol'' was introduced at a rate of 5.25 per British Pound, or just under four shillings (the legacy ''soldus''). The term ''soles de oro'' was introduced in 1933, three years after Peru had actually abandoned the gold standard. In 1985 the Peruvian sol was replaced at one thousand to one by the ''inti'', representing the sun god of the Incas. By 1991 it had to be replaced with a new ''sol'' at a million to one, after which it remained reasonably stable.


United Kingdom

King Offa of Mercia began minting silver pennies on the
Carolingian system The Carolingian dynasty (; known variously as the Carlovingians, Carolingus, Carolings, Karolinger or Karlings) was a Frankish noble family named after Charlemagne, grandson of mayor Charles Martel and a descendant of the Arnulfing and Pippi ...
. As on the continent, English coinage was restricted for centuries to the penny, while the ''scilling'', understood to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere, was merely a
unit of account In economics, unit of account is one of the money functions. A unit of account is a standard numerical monetary unit of measurement of the market value of goods, services, and other transactions. Also known as a "measure" or "standard" of rela ...
equivalent to 12 pence. The
Tudors The House of Tudor was a royal house of largely Welsh and English origin that held the English throne from 1485 to 1603. They descended from the Tudors of Penmynydd and Catherine of France. Tudor monarchs ruled the Kingdom of England and its ...
minted the first shilling coins. Prior to decimalisation in the United Kingdom in 1971, the abbreviation ''s.'' (from ''solidus'') was used to represent shillings, just as ''d.'' ('' denarius'') and £ ('' libra'') were used to represent pence and pounds respectively. Under the influence of the old
long S The long s , also known as the medial s or initial s, is an archaic form of the lowercase letter . It replaced the single ''s'', or one or both of the letters ''s'' in a 'double ''s sequence (e.g., "ſinfulneſs" for "sinfulness" and "poſ ...
, the abbreviations " £sd" eventually developed into the use of a slash , which gave rise to that symbol's ISO and Unicode name "
solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid * ...
".


Vietnam

The French term ''sou'' was borrowed into
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...
as the word ''xu'' / ''su'' (樞).Loigiaihay.com
Soạn bài Thực hành Tiếng Việt bài 3 SGK Ngữ văn 6 tập 1 Cánh diều chi tiết. - Soạn bài Thực hành Tiếng Việt bài 3 chi tiết Ngữ văn 6 tập 1 Cánh diều với đầy đủ lời giải tất cả các câu hỏi và bài tập.m.loigiaihay.com
(in
Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...
).
The term is usually used to simply mean the word "coin" often in compound in the forms of ''đồng xu'' (銅樞) or ''tiền xu'' (錢樞). The modern Vietnamese đồng is nominally divided into 100 ''xu''.


See also

* Roman and
Byzantine coinage Byzantine currency, money used in the Eastern Roman Empire after the fall of the West, consisted of mainly two types of coins: the gold solidus and a variety of clearly valued bronze coins. By the end of the empire the currency was issued only in ...
*
Bezant In the Middle Ages, the term bezant (Old French ''besant'', from Latin ''bizantius aureus'') was used in Western Europe to describe several gold coins of the east, all derived ultimately from the Roman ''solidus''. The word itself comes from th ...
*
Nomisma ''Nomisma'' ( el, νόμισμα) was the ancient Greek word for "money" and is derived from nomos (νόμος) anything assigned, a usage, custom, law, ordinance".The King James Version New Testament Greek Lexicon; Strong's Number:3546 The te ...
*
Hoxne Hoard The Hoxne Hoard ( ) is the largest hoard of late Roman silver and gold discovered in Britain, and the largest collection of gold and silver coins of the fourth and fifth centuries found anywhere within the former Roman Empire. It was found by ...
*
Solidus Solidus (Latin for "solid") may refer to: * Solidus (coin), a Roman coin of nearly solid gold * Solidus (punctuation), or slash, a punctuation mark * Solidus (chemistry), the line on a phase diagram below which a substance is completely solid * ...
and slash punctuation marks


References


Notes


Bibliography

*


External links


Online numismatic exhibit: "This round gold is but the image of the rounder globe" (H.Melville). The charm of gold in ancient coinage
* {{Authority control Coins of ancient Rome Gold coins Coins of the Byzantine Empire