Evidence of Royal Control

Because documentation on Visigothic minting is lacking, the fundamental question of the degree of royal authority over the striking of gold can best be fully addressed only here, at a later point of this book. One is forced to rely on the sum of the coin evidence discussed in detail above. Several aspects of the gold coinage from both the Kingdom of Toulouse and the Kingdom of Toledo have led to the common opinion that minting was tightly controlled by the Visigothic kings, in spite of the plethora of mints in the later period. For the fifth-century kingdom, these aspects are mainly the small number of mint sites and stable weights and fineness. For the regal period they include the placing of the king's name on all tremisses from early in Leovigild's reign, the rapid dissemination of generalized inscriptions, specific legends relating to royal victory, changes in type, the maintenance of theoretical standards, and royal laws concerning coined money. Our treatment of these aspects and of the primary reasons for the production of the gold coinage reinforce the notion that minting was a ‘regalía,’ as it is sometimes called in Spanish scholarship. We now explore this matter further.