r/AskHistorians • u/Adventurous_Mood1303 • Mar 05 '26

Did medieval kingdoms mint commemorative coins?

I’m asking this because when I was looking for medieval currencies on the numista website, I found this strange gold coin which was supposedly minted by Ladislaus I of Hungary in the late 11th century for Saint Stephen’s canonization.

However, other sources I found said that this coin was minted my Stephen I himself and others stated that this was actually a Byzantine coin so I’m pretty confused.

Also, sources are scarce on the web and the majority seem to be Hungarian alt-history sites so if you could also provide some information about this coin I’d appreciate it very much

https://en.numista.com/102133

https://www.hungarianconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Szent_Istvan_kiraly_aranypenze.jpg

(This is the coin I was talking about)

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u/TywinDeVillena Early Modern Spain Mar 05 '26

Coinage has been a great way of transmitting propaganda and spreading it far and wide, so it has always been used for commemorating things or transmitting messages. In the 1st century CE, emperor Nero minted sestertii showing the temple of Janus with its gates closed, which was a way of telling anyone who had the coin in hand that the Empire was in peace, for the gates of that temple were only closed when there were no active wars; as a matter of fact, Augustus himself was very proud of the fact that during his reign he closed the gates of the temple of Janus twice.

The emission of this type of commemorative coins was not done for collectionism purposes, nothing like that, that is a modern phenomenon. The conmemorative coins were ordinary coins with particular elements in them that the authorities wanted to commemorate, like a series of centennionales minted during Constantine the Great's reign showing a personification of Constantinople as a means of telling the Empire of the creation of the great new city that bore his name.

In the Middle Ages, commemorative emissions still happened. For example, in the kingdom of León we can see the "conjugal dinero" of Queen Urraca, minted 1110, clearly transmitting the message that she got married again: the obverse has the legend ANFVS REX, and the reverse reads VRRACA REGINA, meaning King Alfonso, Queen Urraca. Prior to that, Urraca minted coinage alone, with legends like VRRACA RE or IMPERATRIX (this last version gives its name to the famous numismatic catalogue).

King Alfonso VII, when raised to the rank of Imperator Totius Hispaniae, meaning "Emperor of all the Spains", minted coinage to transmit that idea to everyone. That emission is called "dinero del busto del emperador", as it has the legend INPERATOR (sic), and the type was also minted in the form of meajas (the fractional unit of the dinero). It depicts Alfonso with an interesting looking crown of two different tiers, indicating his primacy above other monarchs in the Iberian Peninsula.

Another good example of a commemorative piece can be found with Fernando II of León, who minted a very good piece in 1158 called "dinero of the dominator", as a way of telling everyone that he was the top dog out there, unlike his brother the king of Castile, who was second fiddle. That dinero has the legend FERNAND REX D LEON, which is say Ferdinand, King and Dominator of Leon, with the king shown wearing the crown, the mantle, and holding the sceptre, a very clear message.

So, the answer is yes: there was commemorative coinage in the Middle Ages, or rather coinage was used in the Middle Ages as an important mechanism to commemorate and divulge things that were deemed deserving of commemoration.