This book is actually two books compiled into one. One on coin circulation, use and supply in the third century a.d. in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire; the other on the functioning of the Roman monetary system analysed from the perspective of modern economic theories. There are connections of course, the empirical evidence for the first underpinning several considerations in the second. Yet the strength of this book is mainly in its theoretical part, not in its empirical one. In an extremely clear way, devoid of jargon, various theoretical economic models are explained and questioned for their suitability for understanding or describing the workings of the Roman imperial monetary system. However, much, if not most, of this could have been written without drawing on the numismatic data collected in preparation for this book.

These data consist of a survey of coin finds — whether from hoards, excavations, museum collections or stray finds — from the (north-)eastern provinces of the Roman Empire (Achaea, Cyprus, Asia Minor, Dacia, Pannonia Superior and Inferior, Moesia Inferior and Syria). This is a laudable effort in itself, since coin-find studies and publications tend to focus strongly on the north-western provinces of the Empire, where the evidence is more easily available for scholarly purposes. The amount of work involved in getting access to the data and compiling an overview must have been enormous and should be appreciated. Taking this into account, the lack of even a basic catalogue of finds discussed in the book is to be regretted. Although an appendix lists the publications, museums and archives consulted, nowhere does it become clear what the actual coin numbers per emperor per site or region are, nor the ratios between the various denominations and mints. In a quantitative study, with a detailed chapter (1) on source criticism regarding coin finds and coin hoards, this is a serious omission indeed. All the more so since the core of the work is an enormous set of graphs setting out percentages of coin finds per annum per site for the period Trajan–Gallienus for the provinces listed above.

These graphs are discussed and analysed in great detail in chs 2 and 4, whereas chs 3 and 5–7 are of a more theoretical nature. Ch. 2 uses coin-find evidence to reconstruct silver coin supply to the various provinces in the third century a.d., working from the assumption that a rise in coin finds per annum indicates an increase in supply. Yet it remains unclear how significant the various observed peaks and troughs are, especially in provinces like Moesia Inferior where only two excavated sites are taken into account, without any indication as to actual coin numbers or individual site history. Ch. 4 examines both silver and bronze coin finds per annum in order to reconstruct relative changes in coin output at the mint, which in turn is used to estimate the amount of money in circulation and its effect on price levels (Quantity Theory of Money). While the relative coin output can indeed be grasped by this method, the author completely neglects residual coin circulation, a major factor in any period. Thus, a lack of imperial Severan and later bronze coins, a well-known phenomenon, does not necessarily imply that no bronze coins were used and thus that denarii and antoniniani took over the rôle of small change, as is suggested in this chapter. In order to substantiate this claim, the rôle of second-century bronze coins in third-century contexts should have been investigated too.

The more theoretical chapters are a lot more rewarding and offer some stimulating ideas and insights into imperial monetary policy. In ch. 3 a convincing case is made, based on attested medieval and early modern parallels, for the actual demonetization of gold coins in the third century, caused by the constantly decreasing fineness of the silver coinage, to which the gold coinage was tied in a fixed exchange rate. Gold as a commodity became more valuable than gold as coinage, and was thus either melted down or sold outside the Empire. This indeed would explain the scarceness of (later) third-century gold coins in hoards found on Roman territory and their relative abundance in the Barbaricum. Chs 5 and 6 address the frequently discussed topic of the level of monetary integration and regional financial autonomy within the Roman Empire, giving a good overview of the debate. Additionally the author demonstrates the existence of distinct regional numismatic patterns, which did not, however, impede financial and monetary supra-regional trade and transactions for the élite and middle class entrepreneurs. In what is easily the best chapter of the book (7) the author gives an excellent overview of modern economic theories on the nature and origin of money, and investigates which one would best describe the Roman imperial monetary system. Convincingly she argues for middle ground between a purely state-run nominalist (or chartalist) system deriving from the state's needs to make payments and a metallist system, purely commercial in origin (the Aristotelian point of view) and driven by market forces. She concludes by coining a term for this in-between theory: fiscal metallism. Whether this phrase actually describes the situation in the Roman Empire remains to be tested by further empirical studies, based on a more methodologically sound treatment of numismatic data. The theoretical ground has been well prepared in this volume.