Speaker
Description
John Hunyadi is known in historiography as a leading figure of the High Middle Ages for his involvement around the mid-15th century in the struggle against Ottoman expansion in the Balkans. However, numismatic studies show that his economic and monetary policies are less well known. Our study, a comprehensive analysis of a coin collection in the National Museum of History of Romania, leads us to make some innovative hypotheses about silver coinage in Transylvania under John Hunyadi. By this time the monetary markets of Transylvania, and of Wallachia as well had found themselves under a heavy pressure from Ottoman currency. Therefore, to oppose the Ottoman expansion in Europe it was imperative to deploy a monetary strategy to increase and strengthen Hunyadi’s political power. In making this happen, the Florentine mint masters based in Transylvania played the most critical role in the silver coinage reform attempts.
