What is a Coin?

Some Dissertation Word Salad

Manuel I Komnenos (1118-1180), Tetarteron. Numismatic Museum in Athens.

Today, I am on the second day of a writing retreat, trying to start my dissertation. Yesterday was rough. I did not get much done, and my brain is very foggy after a particularly brutal semester, which saw my family and I move to Nova Scotia, start a new job, a family loss, and random mishaps, obstacles and pressures. I am hoping today will be better.

I thought it would be best to blog some of my thoughts about what I’m trying to write for the first article of my integrated dissertation. I am working on the theory and method component of a historiographical analysis on the evolution of Byzantine numismatics. I am exploring the concept of Wicked Problems (Schofield, 2024) and how the label ‘Byzantine’ has manifested in such problems within and outside the discipline.  I think I am stumbling on the formal language I need to use to articulate my ideas. Also, this article is for DOP, which is intimidating in itself. So, a case of word salad is needed to get things out into the ether.

Wicked Problems

“Typically it is a lack of clearly defined solution that renders the problem ‘wicked’, requiring experimental as opposed to planned solutions.” (Schofield 2024; 21)

The model I am developing uses the concepts of ‘Wicked Problems’, Entanglement, and Object-Oriented Ontology and asks, what is a coin? From that point, I want to explore the entanglements a coin has with humans and how these entanglements become even more complex when we refer to a Roman coin as ‘Byzantine.’ The durability of the label, as well as the durable nature of a coin, permeates into the public reception of historical narratives about the Eastern Roman world, creating what I call Wicked Byzantine Problems. These problems, when addressed and solutions are proposed, create more problems than they solve.  Does this make sense? 

I am a very stream-of-consciousness type of writer, and I think this is the problem for me when it comes to formal academic writing, let alone a PhD dissertation. So, that said, what is a coin?

Besides the obvious flat, circular-metallic object with authoritative imagery on both sides of the coin (pun intended), a coin is many other things. They have agency (Kemmers & Myrberg 2011), and project their influence onto us, in a sense directing us to do their bidding. They present a constructed and accepted notion of authority and value. Coins are durable temporal objects continuously adapting to their context. As Holt (2021) notes, coins are both money and currency, but can also be neither at the same time. They have spiritual, religious, political, social and cultural meanings. They are historical objects, archaeological objects, and much more. “The durability and ubiquity of coins have created an ongoing historical record unrivaled by any other medium” (Holt 2021; 38).  How does the label ‘Byzantine’ change these dynamics and entanglements? Here lie the Wicked Byzantine Problems that we, as scholars, must confront. Our solutions not only affect the discipline but also the reception of these objects by the public. In turn, these narratives are spun into political ideologies that are used to perpetuate malicious intentions by groups. It's a stretch to think a coin, a ‘Byzantine’ coin, can influence the ideology of a fringe group bent on sowing hate, but look into the work of Adam Goldwyn (2022) on alt-right movements and Byzantine history. 

Coins, though weird to say, are not as prevalent in our lives as they were twenty years ago, as technology and cryptocurrencies are taking over the world. I pay for everything through apps and my phone. Who even carries money with them anymore, let alone write a cheque or put their change (coins) into a piggy bank? But coins are still objects that influence our lives directly or indirectly. Their entanglements into the day-to-day social and cultural operations of societies influence our decisions in unseen ways that may seem absurd, but when explored and studied more closely, these influences become more apparent. 

Maybe I'll stop here and try to write these thoughts into something coherent for my dissertation. I think this helped get the juices flowing.