Scientists: The first silver coins were minted in England from Byzantine silver

England – The British University of Cambridge announced that the first silver coins in England were minted from Byzantine silver, following obtaining the first evidence proving this.

The Cambridge University Press Service said that historians have long been interested in the origin of these ancient coins, as the areas where these artifacts were discovered are quite far from the large silver mines known in the Roman and Middle Ages.

An international team of archaeologists has discovered the first evidence that the oldest English and European medieval silver coins were minted from silver mined in the Byzantine Empire.

The university’s press service quoted Rory Naismith, a professor at the University of Cambridge, as saying: “We have obtained the first material evidence that Byzantine silver was the basis for the development of trade and the minting of coins on the shores of the North Sea in the seventh century AD.”

Professor Naismith and his colleagues reached this conclusion following studying a large collection of seventh-century silver coins that were found during excavations conducted in England and several other northern European countries over the past few decades. These coins from the Anglo-Saxon era are today considered physical evidence that in the seventh and eighth centuries AD, northern Europe witnessed one of the first processes of rapid economic growth since the fall of the Roman Empire.

The researchers pointed out that historians have long been interested in the origin of these metal coins, as England and other regions where these artifacts were discovered are far from the large silver mines known in the Roman era and the Middle Ages, and many history experts previously considered that A mine in the vicinity of the French city of Mille was a major source of metal for these coins.

Source: TASS