The coinage that the barbarian peoples inherited from the late Roman Empire was naturally one that reflected the social and economic structure that they were taking over.

The late Roman Empire was primarily an agricultural society, predominantly organised in huge aristocratic estates, the largest of which extended over several thousand square miles. The senatorial aristocracy who dominated this society drew their revenues from their estates in gold, either by the bulk sale, for gold, of agricultural products raised by slave labour, or by rents paid, in gold, by their tenantry. The key coin for such men was the highly valued pure-gold solidus, which had been introduced by Constantine in 309, together with its half, the semissis, and its third, the tremissis or triens. The solidus was a coin only a little larger than a modern American dime or English penny, although, being gold, it was much heavier than either. In ancient terms it weighed 24 carats or siliquae, or in modern terms, about 4½ grams. The quantity of solidi received by senators, particularly by those in the western provinces of the empire, could be enormous. Senators of middling wealth had incomes of 100,000 gold solidi a year, whilst the richest Roman senators had incomes of around 300,000 solidi a year in the fourth century. Incomes on this scale were still spectacularly large even after the heavy taxation demanded by the state had been paid. This small group of families could spend gold extravagantly on luxuries.